Family |
Asteraceae
Centaurea onopordifolia
Boiss.
Leb. Syr.
Centaurea onopordifolia Boiss.
(Diagn. Pl. Orient. 10: 114, 1849; Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 483; Pl. CCXCV nº 1; 1966)
• Life-form & habit: Robust perennial, 60–100 cm, entirely appressed-canescente, usually multicaule. Stems leafy, ending in a dense paniculate-thyrsoid inflorescence.
• Leaves: Very coriaceous, broadly lanceolate-linear, strongly veined beneath, pinnatilobed into triangular lobes separated by undulate sinuses, each ending in short but strong spines. Basal leaves long, attenuate into a petiole; cauline leaves progressively shorter, decurrent into spinose-lobed wings.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Capitula subsessile, 1.5 cm long and wide, yellowish. Involucral bracts tomentose; lower ones with a short semi-orbicular appendage bearing 5–7 small spines; middle bracts with a long spine surrounded by spinules at the base, equaling the florets; upper bracts scarious, cucullate, unarmed. Florets yellow.
• Fruit: Achenes compressed, blackish; pappus blackish, intermediate series 2× the length of the achene body, innermost series 3× shorter.
• Phenology: Flowers June–August.
• Habitat & elevation: Rocky slopes.
• Lebanese distribution: Deir-el-Ahmar, Beqaa plain (Yammouné–Baalbeck, Aytanit, Chmistar, Baalbeck Shaad, Qabbelias, Anjar), Ouadi-el-Harir.
• Syrian distribution: Chahba, Jabal Druze, Soueida.
• Native range: Endemic to Lebanon and Syria.
⚠️ Diagnostic note: Distinguished by its coriaceous, strongly lobed-spiny leaves and the characteristic involucral bracts: the lower with small spinules, the median with a long central spine, and the upper scarious and cucullate.