Flora-Fauna

Centaurea hyalolepis Boiss.

(Diagn. Pl. Orient. 6: 133, 1846; = C. pallescens Delile var. hyalolepis Boiss.; Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 489; Pl. CCCIV nº 2; 1966)

• Life-form & habit: Annual to biennial, 60–100 cm, stems branched divaricately from the base, long, pubescent, with arachnoid hairs.
• Leaves: Radical leaves in rosettes, pinnatisect with a lanceolate outline, 4–10 × 3–5 cm, segments triangular-lanceolate, dentate. Upper cauline leaves oblong-lanceolate, attenuate at base, entire or strongly denticulate, the uppermost enveloping the capitula.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Capitula nearly sessile at stem dichotomies. Involucral bracts glabrous, ovate, pale, ending in a transparent semi-lunar appendage tipped with a strong spine longer than the florets, sometimes flanked at the base by 2 short lateral points. Upper bracts scarious, white-margined, sometimes unarmed. Florets sulphur-yellow.
• Fruit: Achenes small, c. 2.5 mm, shiny; pappus with an outer series as long as the achene body and a very short inner series .
• Phenology: Flowers April–July.
• Habitat & elevation: Wastelands, degraded woodlands, fields.
• Lebanese distribution: Nahr es-Saïnik, Saïda, Beirut, Nahr Ibrahim, Mkallès, Zahlé.
• Syrian distribution: Baalbeck, Homs, ‘Ain Delfi, Abou Douhour, Tell ‘Alo, Tell Kotchek, Deir-ez-Zor, Damascus plain (Douma, Qteifé, Adra, Ghouta, Jabal Qasyoun), Anti-Lebanon, Ezra‘a, Soueida .
• Native range: Algeria, Cyprus, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon–Syria, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Yemen (POWO).
• Introduced into: Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Sicily, Spain (POWO).

⚠️ Taxonomic note: Treated by Boissier as a variety of C. pallescens; Mouterde upheld it as distinct based on its sulphur-yellow florets, divaricate branching, and the large semi-hyaline appendage of the involucral bracts.