Flora-Fauna

Crepis foetida L.

(Sp. Pl.: 807, 1753; Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 520; Pl. CCCXXVII nº 1; 1983)

• Life-form & habit: Annual, rarely biennial, 15–50 cm, stems erect, simple or branched, somewhat hispid. Plant with a characteristic unpleasant odor when crushed.
• Leaves: Basal leaves oblong to oblanceolate, pinnatifid to dentate, forming a rosette; cauline leaves progressively smaller, sessile, often clasping. Surfaces sparsely hispid.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Capitula numerous, 15–20 mm, borne in lax corymbose-paniculate inflorescences. Involucre campanulate; outer bracts short, spreading, hispid; inner bracts lanceolate, glabrous. Ligules yellow, sometimes tinged reddish beneath.
• Fruit: Achenes cylindrical, ribbed, narrowed into a slender beak; pappus of numerous white hairs.
• Phenology: Flowers March–June.
• Habitat & elevation: Fields, pastures, roadsides, ruderal and disturbed ground.
• Lebanese distribution: Common in the Beqaa (Baalbeck, Riyaq), coastal plains (Beirut, Saida, Tripoli), and foothills up to 1,200 m.
• Syrian distribution: Widespread — Damascus, Homs, Aleppo, Hama, Latakia, Palmyra, Deir-ez-Zor.
• Native range: Albania, Algeria, Austria, Baleares, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Central European Russia, Corse, Cyprus, Czechia-Slovakia, Djibouti, East Aegean Islands, Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kenya, Kriti, Krym, Lebanon–Syria, Morocco, Netherlands, North Caucasus, NW. Balkan Peninsula, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, Somalia, South European Russia, Spain, Sudan–South Sudan, Switzerland, Transcaucasus, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Turkey-in-Europe, Ukraine (POWO).
• Introduced into: Florida, Georgia, Great Britain, Massachusetts, New South Wales, North Carolina, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, Wisconsin (POWO).

⚠️ Diagnostic note: Easily distinguished from other Levantine Crepis by its fetid odor, pinnatifid basal leaves, and ribbed achenes with a long slender beak.