| Common Name: | Mountain bluet |
| Family: | Asteraceae |
| Genus: | Centaurea |
| Species: | montana L. |
| Classification/Rank: | Very Invasive |
| Method of Transportation: | Often purchased as an ornamental , but easily escapes flower beds. It is self seeding and colonizes quickly. Spreads by people giving or selling the plants, and improperly disposing of garden waste. |
| Habitat/Range: | Enjoys full sun and dry - medium wet conditions. |
Mountain bluet (Centaurea montana) - also known as Perennial Cornflower or Perennial Bachelor's Buttons - is escaping gardens and infesting landscapes in our region!
Mountain bluet is a taprooted perennial herb from Europe. It prefers full sun and dry to medium-wet conditions. It grows up to 30 to 80 cm tall and has simple, lance-shaped leaves that have a lightly woolly underside. The whole plant is lightly hairy. Flowerheads are similar to knapweeds. The disk flowers ("petals") are usually blue but can be white. Flowers bloom from late spring to early summer.
Find out more about this weed by checking out the link below for Christine Friedrichsmeier's July 2011 article "A New Weed to Watch Out For" from the NWIPC Resources page under Invasive Plant Information.
To report this weed call the Weeds Hotline at 1-866-44WEEDS or use the Report-A-Weed application.
Land owners and managers have long recognized the need to control invasive plants to limit their impacts. In May 2018, a new smartphone app...
This will be of interest to those writing pest management plans or who work in the vegetation management field. Check out IVMA's website...
