Family |
Asteraceae
Centaurea hololeuca
Boiss.
Leb. Syr.
Centaurea hololeuca Boiss.
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, Pl. CCCV nº 2; 1983)
Life-form & habit: Densely canescent perennial, 40–100 cm tall. Stems simple, leafy, branching apically into short, erect, monocéphalous ramules.
Leaves: Basal leaves petiolate, sometimes with 1–2 oblong basal lobes; upper leaves sessile, shortly decurrent, entire, lanceolate-acute, canescent on both sides, gradually smaller toward the top.
Inflorescence & flowers: Capitula ovate-conical, slightly truncate at base, up to 2 cm long and wide; involucre narrowed at apex, glabrous or nearly so.
Bracts: Ending in a concolorous, yellow-greenish, palmate appendage with 8–12 lobes, central spine slightly longer than the rest; upper bracts scarious at the tip.
Flowers: Yellow, markedly exceeding the involucre; non-radiant.
Fruit: Achenes 5 mm long, glabrous, white-yellowish, faintly striated.
Pappus: Intermediate row white or rufous, nearly as long as the achene; inner row 4× shorter.
Phenology: Flowers from July to August.
Habitat & elevation: High-elevation zones of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon.
Lebanese distribution: Mm. Les Cèdres, Jisr-el-Hajar, Faraya, Neba‘ el-‘Assal, Neba‘ el-Laban.
Syrian distribution: Eastern slopes of Jabal Halimé, summit of Zemrani.
Native range: Endemic to Lebanon and Syria