Definition of "centaurea"

The marjorum stood in ruddy and fragrant masses; harebells and campanulas of several kinds, that are cultivated in our gardens, with bells large and clear; crimson pinks; the Michaelmas daisy; a plant with a thin, radiated yellow flower, of the character of an aster; a centaurea of a light purple, handsomer than any English one; a thistle in the dryest places, resembling an eryngo, with a thick, bushy top; mulleins, yellow and white; the wild mignonnette, and the white convolvulus; and clematis festooning the bushes, recalled the flowery fields and lanes of England, and yet told us that we were not there.

1850, Harper's Magazine, volume 1, page 449

Its border is of tri-colored and quadricolored geranium leaves, intermingled with leaves of the highly tinted coleus and the hoary centaurea.

1873, Michigan State Pomological Society, Annual Report of the Michigan State Pomological Society, volume 2, page 131

Two of the best-known annual centaureas are C. cyanus (cornflower or Bachelor’s button) and C. moschata (Sweet Sultan).

1953, The Visual Garden Manual, page 48

The ancient Greeks believed that when Chiron was wounded in the foot by an arrow that Hercules had poisoned with the blood of the Hydra he cured himself by treating the wound with the sap of a centaurea. However, in actual fact, none of the centaureas, like the majority of the family Compositae in general, possess any great medicinal properties.

1975, Ippolito Pizzetti, Henry Cocker, Flowers: a Guide for Your Garden, volume 1, page 205

Another type of centaurea, which has an interesting flower with sharp pointed tips, is Centaurea moschata. It is also fragrant and will need staking like the other centaureas but usually doesn’t bloom quite as prolifically.

2000, Shane Smith, Greenhouse Gardener's Companion: Growing Food and Flowers in Your Greenhouse Or Sunspace, page 194