Flora-Fauna

Astartoseris triquetra (Labill.) Greuter

(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, Pl. CCCXXXIX nº 2 a & b; 1983, as Lactuca triquetra)

• Life-form & habit: Subshrub with short woody, decumbent, cylindrical stems covered by annual, sharply triquetrous herbaceous branches with prominent acute ridges.

• Leaves: Spring leaves at the stem base oblong-lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, obtuse, entire or faintly toothed, disappearing by flowering. Upper branches bear only very small linear floral leaves, often caducous.

• Inflorescence & flowers: Terminal, loosely cylindrical spikes of subsessile capitula, each with 5 flowers. Involucral bracts few, progressively elongate. Corolla violet.

• Fruit: Achenes slightly compressed, multi-striate, briefly tapering at the apex, without a distinct beak.

• Phenology: Flowers from August to November.

• Habitat & elevation: Rocky ground and stony hillsides.

• Lebanese distribution: Ctr. Beirut (Jall-ed-Dib, Nahr el-Kelb, Bouar, Bahsas, Mar Ya‘qoub); Mi. Ghazir, Dlepta to Ghazir, Beit Kachbo, Jabal Terbol, above Choueifat; P. Beit-ed-Dine, Bchela, Doubra, ‘Abey to Souk el-Gharb, Deir el-Qamar; Mm. ‘Aïn Sindiane, below Qannoubine.

• Native range: Lebanon and Cyprus