Index / Search / Centaurium exaltatum
§1 Plant
Centaurium exaltatum (Griseb.) W. Wight ex Piper
vernacular desert centaury — species · Gentianaceae
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Forb/herb
- Duration
- Annual
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Gentianaceae Juss.
- Genus
- Centaurium
§2a
Native status, by region
- CAN Canada Native
- L48 Lower 48 States Native
§2b
County-level range
· 2 counties across 1 state§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- Low
- Shade
- High
- Moisture use
- Medium
- Fire
- None
- Salinity
- Medium
- Anaerobic
- Low
- CaCO₃
- High
- Hedging
- None
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- 52 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 120 min.
- Precipitation
- 8–18 in/yr
- pH range
- 6.5–9
- Root depth
- 8 in min.
- Fertility need
- Medium
- Soil texture
- coarse, medium
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Single Crown
- Growth rate
- Rapid
- Mature height
- 1.5 ft
- Foliage texture
- Medium
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Porous
- Porosity (winter)
- Porous
- Flower colour
- White
- Fruit colour
- Brown
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- None
- Toxicity
- None
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Late Spring
- Seed abundance
- Medium
- Seed begins
- Summer
- Seed ends
- Summer
- Spread rate
- Slow
- Stratify
- No
- Seeds / lb
- 2,000,000
- Propagation
- seed
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- No Known Source
- Nursery stock
- No
- Palatable, human
- No
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Counties, by state
Recorded in 2 counties across 1 state.
Montana view state ↗ 2 N ▾
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/CEEX ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/7471251 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-25
fetched 2026-05-25T18:27:19Z