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Zeltnera exaltata
Conservation status
	; Secure (NatureServe)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Gentianales
Family:	Gentianaceae
Genus:	Zeltnera
Species:	Z. exaltata
Binomial name
	Zeltnera exaltata; (Griseb.) G.Mans., 2004
Synonyms
	Centaurium exaltatum (Griseb.) W.Wight ex Piper (1906) ; Cicendia exaltata Griseb. (1838) ; Erythraea exaltata (Griseb.) Coville (1893) ;

Zeltnera exaltata is a species of flowering plant in the gentian family known by the common names desert centaury and tall centaury. It is native to much of western North America from British Columbia to Arizona to Nebraska, where it grows in moist areas, generally with alkaline soils. This is an annual herb which is variable in appearance, especially in different habitat types. It grows up to about 35 centimeters in height, its slender stem with widely spaced pairs of oppositely arranged, pointed leaves 1 to 3 centimeters long. The inflorescence is an open array of flowers, each on a pedicel which may be several centimeters in length. The flower has generally four or five white or pink lobes, each somewhat rolled to appear narrow in shape.

Taxonomy

Zeltnera exaltata was scientifically described by August Grisebach in 1838 with the name Cicendia exaltata. The botanist Charles Vancouver Piper, working from information provided by William Franklin Wight, published a paper in 1906 moving it to the Centaurium genus, where it was accepted for almost a century. In 2004 Guilhem Mansion published a paper where it was reevaluated and renamed as Zeltnera exaltata.^[2]