Centaurea crupina Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 909. 1753; Serratula crupina (Linnaeus) Villars.

Herbs 20-60 cm tall. Stem solitary, basally pubescent, apically glabrous. Leaves green, with few glochidiate hairs at margin and sometimes sparsely lanate pubescent on adaxial side of rachis. Basal leaves soon decaying, sessile, obovate, scabrid, margin entire or toothed, apex obtuse. Stem leaves sessile; lateral segments 3-5 pairs, linear to broadly linear, 1.4-4 mm wide, margin entire or sparsely minutely denticulate. Capitula 3-6(-15), laxly corymbose. Involucre at anthesis fusiform to narrowly ellipsoid and 4-6 mm in diam., expanding in fruit to obconic and 7-12 mm in diam. Phyllaries pale green sometimes with purple tinge, in ca. 6 rows, herbaceous, striate, margin narrowly white scarious, apex acute; outer phyllaries broadly ovate to elliptic, 1.5-2.1 mm; middle and inner phyllaries elliptic-lanceolate, 5-11 × 1.5-2.5 mm. Corolla purple, filiform, ca. 1.1 cm, pubescent with richly branched hairs. Achene subcylindric, 3-5 mm, base rounded, villous toward apex; attachment scar basal, suborbicular. Outer pappus elements to ca. 6 mm, very unequal, scabridulous; inner pappus elements 5 or 6(-12), very short. Fl. and fr. Jul. 2n = 30.

Crupina vulgaris is naturalized in North America.

Slopes; ca. 1100 m. NW Xinjiang (Ili Kazak Zizhizhou) [Afghanistan, India, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; Africa, SW Asia, Europe].