Family: composites (Asteraceae)
Flowering time: July–August
Height: 20–60 cm
Habitat: dry meadows and sun-exposed shrub slopes
An erect and normally richly branched stem of Gaudin's knapweed (Centaurea bracteata) is in the lower part leafed with entire, ovate to lanceolate leaves that become increasingly narrower toward the top of the stem. The whole plant is densely appressed-hairy and therefore silver-white. At the top of the shoots solitary heads develop with flowers pink to cyclamen color. Heads are 9–20 mm wide. The middle involucral leaves are 5–8 mm wide and inflated. Their edge, which we call the appendage, is distinctly pale, brownish-white, and usually torn. Gaudinov glavinec grows on barren dry soils in moderately warm habitats.
It is limited to the warmer part of Slovenia, distributed mainly in its southwestern and western parts; it is also found in the southeast and in the interior of the country, where it is rarer.
