Flora-Fauna

Centaurea iberica Trevir. ex Spreng.

(First published in Syst. Veg. ed. 16, 3: 406, 1826; treated in Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 488–489; 1983)

• Life-form & habit: Erect annual or biennial, very divaricately branched, 20–80 cm tall.

• Leaves: Finely and sparsely papillose; basal leaves lyrate-pinnatifid or pinnatisect with obtuse mucronulate-denticulate lobes; lower cauline leaves sessile, shorter, weakly lobed; uppermost cauline leaves entire.

• Inflorescence & flowers: Capitula solitary, ovoid, shortly pedunculate or sessile, c. 1 cm in diameter. Involucral bracts pale, glabrous, coriaceous, narrowly membranous-margined; appendages very short, bearing 1–2 pairs of short lateral spines and a strong central spine equalling the bracts below, lengthening 2–3× higher up; inner bracts spineless, scarious-tipped. Flowers pink.

• Fruits: Small achenes, often with paler longitudinal lines, crowned by a pappus about half as long.

• Phenology: Flowers May–July.

• Habitat & elevation: Roadsides, waste ground, light woodlands.

• Lebanese distribution: Beirut, Tripoli, Ras Jedra, north of Tyre, Ban, Qannoubine, Dimane, Mreijatte, Jabal Kneissé, Salima, Marassia, Bechnata.

• Syrian distribution: West of Damascus, Sahl-es-Sahra, NE of Damascus.

• Native range: Afghanistan, Baltic States, Belarus, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Cyprus, East Aegean Islands, East European Russia, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Crimea, Lebanon–Syria, North Caucasus, NW Balkan Peninsula, Pakistan, Palestine, Romania, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Turkey-in-Europe, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, West Himalaya, Xinjiang (POWO).

• Introduced into: California, France, Germany, Italy, Kansas, Oregon, Sicily, Washington, Wyoming (POWO).