It flowers from late April to mid-June and in cultivation even earlier, e.g., March in Istanbul.

The peak flowering period is mid-May and in earlier years it was sold in some quantity by street florists in Ankara.

Ants play an important role in seed dispersal and the fully ripe fat achenes are a delight for pigeons which settle down to feed in large flocks.

The species is of taxonomic interest as it has some rather unusual and unique features not existing in any other Centaurea.

However, C. tchihatcheffii has 2n=20, with x=10 (Gömürgen and Adigüzel 2001), the same number as occurring in the derived species of the perennial section C. sect.

Tchihatcheff’s original material from his travels to Asia Minor was deposited with the Société botanique de France which collections were later included in Paris (P).

Meyer it would seem more likely that the specimens on which the descriptions were based were those duplicates sent to LE (thus potential holotypes) and not those remaining at P (part of the original set).