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Centaurothamnus maximus (Arabian Shrub Cornflower) - Subshrub to 4 feet tall with large 4 to 6 inch long elliptical gray-green leaves that are hairy white on the underside. From summer late into fall appear the large round capitate flower heads with prominent pale green involucral bracts that burst open with full 2 ½ inch wide tight heads of pale violet colored disk flowers. Flowers are thistle-like but soft to the touch and have a faint sweet fragrance.
Plant in a well-draining soil in a sunny to part sun location and irrigate sparingly – tolerates regular irrigation but suffers if it gets too much in the cooler winter months unless in a very well drained soil. Has proven hardy for us down to near freezing temperatures but otherwise we are not sure of its hardiness. Bees love this plants – they don't hover like they normally do on most other plants but crawl around in among the flower heads.
Centaurothamnus maximus is native to the Arabian Peninsula in southwestern regions of Saudi Arabia and Yemen and is the only known species in the genus, making Centaurothamnus a monotypic genus. It is rare in habitat and found only in two localities in Saudi Arabia and on high elevation cliffs in Yemen.
The plant was first described in 1775 by the Dutch naturalist and Linnaeus disciple Peter Forskaol as Centaurea maxima in his Flora Aegyptiaco-Arabica but was renamed in 1982 by Gerhard Wagenitz and Manfred Dittrich in Candollea, the scientific journal of The Conservatory and Botanical Garden of the City of Geneva (37: 111, 1982) with the name having the Latin suffix 'thamnus', meaning "shrub" or "bush", added to the original genus name, indicating this plants shrubby habit.
We were given seed of this plant in 2022 by the meadow master John Greenlee, who had collected the seed in a garden he had visited that year in Europe. When we were visited in 2025 by botanical explorer, taxonomist and aloe book author (The Aloes of Arabia) Tom McCoy, he indicated that this plant was one that he had collected while living in Saudia Arabia and that he had disseminated the seed of to various collections, so likely our plants came from seed collection. We were informed by Dylan Hannon at the Huntington Botanical Garden that plants they had of this species were grown from seed given to them by McCoy. Our later crops came from seed collected from a plant that we had in our stock corral.
The information displayed on this page about Centaurothamnus maximus is based on the research we have conducted about it in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about this plant as it grows in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant have performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we have received from others and welcome hearing from anyone with information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information that will aid others to better grow it.
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