Flora-Fauna

Eryngium creticum Lam.

(Encycl. 4: 754, 1798; Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, p. 578; Pl. CCLIII nº 1; 1969)

• Life-form & habit: Much-branched perennial, 30–60 cm tall, with divaricate, rigid blue (rarely green or glaucous) stems and branches; forms broad corymbs.
• Leaves: Basal leaves deciduous before anthesis, petiolate, green, oblong, sometimes cordate at base, margin faintly crenate, edible; occasionally followed by lower cauline leaves less coriaceous, more distinctly toothed or divided. Cauline leaves sessile, deeply pinnatipartite into long spiny segments.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Inflorescence loose, corymbose; capitula globose, c. 8 mm diameter. Bracts of involucre 5, linear-subulate, with 2–3 spines at base and smaller marginal teeth, 3–4 times longer than capitula. All bracteoles trifid, exceeding the flowers. Sepals short, ovate, obtuse, mucronate.
• Fruit: Schizocarp of flattened mericarps, with faint ribs and tuberculate surface.
• Phenology: Flowers May–September.
• Habitat & elevation: Occurs in a wide range of habitats, from stony slopes and roadsides to cultivated ground, in coastal to montane zones.
• Lebanese distribution: Tyr, Saïda, Beirut, Nahr Beyrouth, Baabda, Bikfaya, Ghazir, Maghdouché, Chahtoul, Qpmayel, Jamhour, Chakrourane.
• Syrian distribution: Widespread — Baalbeck, Hermel plain, Ras Baalbeck, Qa‘a, Menbij, Damascus, Qasyoun, Qaryatein, Jab. el-Hass.
• Native range: Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, East Aegean Islands, Egypt, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kriti, Lebanon–Syria, NW. Balkan Peninsula, Palestine, Sinai, Turkey, Turkey-in-Europe (POWO).
• Introduced into: France (POWO).