Family |
Asteraceae
Carthamus glaucus
M.Bieb.
Carthamus glaucus M. Bieb.
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, Pl. CCCVII & CCCIX nº 3; 1983)
Life-form & habit: Finely puberulent, canescent annual or biennial, sometimes glandular. Stems erect, straw-yellow or brown, corymbosely branched.
Leaves: Basal leaves lyrate-pinnatifid; cauline leaves coriaceous, oblong-lanceolate with prominent veins, clasping at the base, dentate-spinulose. Uppermost leaves smaller and gradually reduced.
Inflorescence & flowers: Capitula oblong-ovoid, variable in size, ca. 2 cm high. Outer bracts foliar, pinnatifid, spinulose-dentate, as long as the flowers; inner bracts scarious, lanceolate, acute, entire.
Flowers: Rose-purple.
Fruit: Achenes thick, short, ovoid-quadrangular.
Pappus: Reddish-brown; outer series of short, retuse scales; inner pappus of longer paleae (2–3× the achene), with the innermost series short and connivent.
Phenology: Flowers from May to August.
Habitat & elevation: Roadsides, fallow fields, and cultivated ground.
Lebanese distribution: Ct. Tyr, between Tyr and Nahr Qazmiyé, Beirut (near Pigeon Rocks), Tripoli, Saïda; Mi. ‘Abey, Douma; Met. Ksara, Ta‘naïl, ‘Amiq, ‘Aytanit–Jisr el-Kuwwe, Beqaa plain; A.L. Ouadi el-Harir.
Syrian distribution: Arida, Nahr Abrache; Aleppo, Ma‘arat en-Na‘man, W of Sarmada, Damascus (Sahl-es-Sahra, Mezzé, ‘Adra), Soueida, Chaa’f, Chaba‘a.
Native range: Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Krym, Lebanon-Syria, Libya, North Caucasus, Palestine, Sinai, Transcaucasus, Türkey, Ukraine. (KEW)
Introduced into: France (KEW)