Centaurea virgata is a species of Centaurea. It is native to Western Asia. The subspecies C. virgata subsp. squarrosa is known as squarrose knapweed.

Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck, often known simply as Lamarck, was a French naturalist, biologist, academic, and soldier. He was an early proponent of the idea that biolog