Centaurea triumfettii

Centaurea triumfettii, commonly known as squarrose knapweed or Triumfetti's knapweed, is a perennial herb in the family Asteraceae native to central, southern, and eastern Europe and adjacent western Asia, where it grows on dry rocky slopes, calcareous grassland, and open woodland edges. The plant typically reaches 20 to 50 centimetres in height, arising from a short woody rhizome and producing several erect, unbranched or sparsely branched, finely woolly stems. The leaves are alternate, lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 4 to 10 centimetres long, with entire to slightly toothed margins and a grey-tomentose underside; basal leaves are stalked while stem leaves are sessile and decreasing in size upwards. Each stem bears a single terminal flower head 3 to 5 centimetres across with bright blue to violet outer ray-like sterile florets surrounding a darker central tuft of fertile tubular florets. The involucral bracts are tipped with conspicuous, dark, comb-like fringed appendages. Fruits are small ribbed achenes with a short pappus. Flowering occurs from late spring through early summer.