Description: Annual or perennial herbs.
Leaves simple, margins entire to pinnatisect; ± petiolate, becoming sessile and ± stem clasping below the inflorescence.
Inflorescences rounded to elongate thyrses loosely branching into a number of dichasia with sessile flowers; bracts scale-like. Calyx with 10–23 feather-like lobes. Corolla with a slender tube 3–5 times longer than lobes, upper lobe usually longer and spurred. Stamen 1. Style slender, stigma entire or with 3 branches.
Fruit dry, scarcely rigid where 2 loculi were aborted.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 12 species, Europe & Mediterranean region. Australia: 2 species (naturalized), all States.
Text by L. Retter. Key by Kerry Gibbons, 12 May 2023.
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Leaves on lower stems with margins usually entire, becoming toothed below the inflorescence; corolla with basal spur 4–8 mm long | Centranthus ruber |
| Leaves on lower stems with margins lobed or toothed, becoming pinnatifid below the inflorescence; corolla with basal spur c. 1 mm long | Centranthus macrosiphon |
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