General:
Perennial herb from a taproot; stems erect, branched, glabrous or somewhat sparsely long-hairy, 0.4-1.0 m tall.

Leaves:
Basal leaves oblanceolate to elliptic, base tapering into the stalk, deeply to shallowly lobed or irregularly pinnately cut, glabrous or often lightly hairy below, up to 15 cm long and 3 cm wide; stem leaves lanceolate, unstalked, reduced upwards.

Flowers:
Heads discoid, numerous, solitary at the ends of ascending branches; disk flowers reddish-purple, the marginal ones, if present, enlarged, lobed and conspicuous; involucres 12-15 mm tall, 8-11 mm wide; involucral bracts cylindric, taller than wide, with slightly enlarged, rounded, tattered to comb-like, darker appendages at the tips, these wider than the bracts.

Fruits:
Achenes grey or light brown, 3.2-3.5 mm long; pappus reduced to small scales or lacking.

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.

Illustration Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Centaurea debeauxii subsp. thuillieri Dostál
Centaurea dubia subsp. vochinensis (Bernh. ex Rchb.) Hayek
Centaurea pratensis Thuill., nom. illeg., non Salisb.
Centaurea vochinensis Bernh. ex Rchb.