Flora-Fauna

Cousinia ramosissima DC.

(Prodr. 6: 552, 1838; = C. drusorum Bornm. & Sam.; Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 449; Pl. CCLVI nº 2; 1966)

• Life-form & habit: Much-branched perennial, 20–60 cm tall; stems glabrous or with a deciduous tomentum.
• Leaves: Coriaceous, somewhat resin-dotted, with reticulate-salient venation; glabrous or slightly pubescent above, tomentose-canescence beneath. Radical leaves oblong-lanceolate, shortly attenuate at base. Cauline leaves narrowly oblong, shortly and narrowly decurrent, sinuately dentate, each lobe ending in a yellow spine.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Capitula terminal, subsolitary, shortly pedunculate, subtended by upper cauline leaves which often equal them; heads subglobose with 7–12 flowers. Involucral bracts 35–40, short-triangular, convex-carinate, ending in a short spine, more or less glandular-papillose dorsally; inner bracts shorter, submuticous, fimbriate. Florets yellow.
• Fruit: Achenes compressed, subcostate, truncate at apex, with indistinctly lobulate margin.
• Phenology: Flowers June–September .
• Habitat & elevation: Mountains and subarid regions.
• Lebanese distribution: ‘Aïnata, Deir-el-Ahmar, Yammouné, between Yammouné and ‘Afqa, Chmistar, Chaate, north of Hermel (10 km), Zahlé–Baalbeck road.
• Syrian distribution: Baalbeck, Damascus environs, Ma‘ara, Homs, Chahba, Chaef, Telljeffha, Qastal, Tell Chihane .
• Native range: Lebanon, Syria, Turkey (POWO).

⚠️ Taxonomic note: Originally described by DC., later treated as C. drusorum by Bornmüller & Samuelsson. Mouterde emphasized its distinction by the short-spined involucral bracts and the limited number of capitular florets.