Family |
Apiaceae
Eryngium billardierei
Delile
Eryngium billardierei F.Delaroche
(First published in Nouv. Bull. Sci. Soc. Philom. Paris, sér. 2, 1: 87 (1807); Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, Pl. CCLII nº 2; 1970, as Eryngium billardieri Laroche) (Plants of the World Online)
• Life-form & habit : Erect perennial herb, 30–100 cm tall, with blue stems and blue flowers.
• Leaves : Leaves coriaceous, with reticulate venation; radical leaves ovate-orbicular, trisect, with the primary segments themselves tripartite and again divided into irregular, partly overlapping lobes; all points and margins armed with numerous unequal spines. Cauline leaves sessile, lanceolate, much smaller, also bordered by numerous unequal spines.
• Inflorescence & flowers : Capitula surrounded by 7–9 involucral bracts, more or less spinulose at the base; floral bracts lanceolate, longer than the calyx; calyx lobes lanceolate and mucronate.
• Fruit : Fruit not described separately by Mouterde; as in Eryngium, the fruit is a dry schizocarp splitting into two mericarps.
• Phenology : Flowers from June to September.
• Habitat & elevation : Mountain habitats, especially in the middle mountain belt and on Hermon.
• Lebanese distribution : Recorded by Mouterde from above Dimane, the base of Jabal Kneissé near the Col de Zahlé, between Barqaouiche and ‘Aïn-el-Dib, and Hermon.
• Native range : Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Pakistan, Transcaucasus, Turkmenistan, Türkiye, West Himalaya.
• Diagnostic remarks : Distinguished from Eryngium heldreichii by its taller stature, ovate-orbicular radical leaves divided into broader, irregular, overlapping spiny lobes, and by its 7–9 involucral bracts that are only more or less spinulose at the base. E. heldreichii is lower, often glaucous-blue at the summit, with basal leaves divided into entangled, shortly lanceolate segments forming a half-open fan, and involucral bracts usually entire, rigid and at least three times longer than the capitula. Mouterde used the spelling Eryngium billardieri Laroche; POWO currently accepts Eryngium billardierei F.Delaroche. (Plants of the World Online)