Andalucia Life Fauna and Flora, Flowers of Andalucia Southern Spain

September 2007, Common Centaury – Centaurium erythraea

common_centaury

This flower may be called common but in appearance it is anything but. With its cheerful pink, five petalled flowers and yellow anthers clustered on pale green stems it provides a carpet of colour. The stems lead down to a rosette of leaves at the base. You should see this flower now at the end of its summer flowering period on dry, grassy ground. It prefers limy soils. This one was photographed near Medina Sidonia.