Family |
Asteraceae
Chamaeleon comosus
(Spreng.) Greuter
Leb. Syr. Pal.
Chamaeleon comosus (Spreng.) Greuter
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 446; as Acarna comosa)
Description
Life-form & habit: Perennial, 30–60 (100) cm tall; erect stems, glabrous or finely pubescent, branched from the base or upper nodes.
Leaves: Rigid, oblong to lanceolate, pinnatisect with sinuate or dentate-spinulose margins; cauline leaves sessile, amplexicaul.
Inflorescence & flowers: Capitula variable in size (1–5 cm), hemispheric.
Bracts: Outer involucral bracts foliose, coriaceous, tomentose, oblong-lanceolate, spinose-dentate, exceeding the receptacle. Intermediate bracts linear-lanceolate, ending in a single or pennate spine. Inner bracts scarious, pink, linear, acute, glabrous.
Receptacle: Scales fusiform at apex, rigid, very acute.
Fruit: Achenes with a pappus twice as long as the body, plumose.
Flowering and habitat
Phenology: Flowers from June to August.
Habitat & elevation: Abandoned fields and pastures.
Distribution
Lebanese distribution: Ct. Tyr, Khaldé, Beirut, Tripoli; Mi. Bikfaya, Broummana, ‘Abey, ‘Aramoun, ‘Aley; Met. Qab Elias, Ta‘naïl.
Syrian distribution: Aleppo.
Native range: Lebanon-Syria, Palestine. (KEW)