Family |
Asteraceae
Geropogon hybridus
(L.) Sch.Bip.
Geropogon hybridus (L.) Sch.Bip.
(First published in P.B.Webb & S.Berthelot, Hist. Nat. Iles Canaries 3(2; 3): 472 (1850); basionym Tragopogon hybridus L.; Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, Pl. CCCXXIII nº 1; 1983, as Tragopogon hybridum L., syn. Geropogon glabrum L., G. hirsutum L., G. hybridus (L.) Schultz Bip.) (Plants of the World Online)
• Life-form & habit : Annual herb, glabrous or with scattered hairs, 20–50 cm tall; stem cylindrical, simple or with erect branches.
• Leaves : Leaves long, linear; the lowest leaves dilated at the base, the cauline leaves semi-amplexicaul.
• Inflorescence & flowers : Capitula multiflorous, borne on fistulose peduncles that become dilated toward the end; involucral bracts in a single row, 8, linear-lanceolate and much exceeding the flowers; florets pink to violet; receptacle alveolate and furnished with fibrils.
• Fruit : Achenes striate and scabrous; marginal achenes bearing five scabrous paleae, the inner achenes with a plumose pappus, not dilated at the summit of the beak.
• Phenology : Flowers from April to May.
• Habitat & elevation : Cultivated ground and abandoned fields, mainly from the coastal belt to the lower and middle mountain belts, also in Mediterranean continental and Hermon localities.
• Lebanese distribution : Recorded by Mouterde from Ras Bayada, Zefta, east of Saïda, Beyrouth, Nahr Beyrouth, Antélias, Ras Chekka-Hamat, Tripoli, ‘Abey, ‘Aley, Chouite, Rayfoun, Bikfaya, Jamhour, Hadchit, Zahlé, Baïno and Hasbaya.
• Native range : Albania, Algeria, Baleares, Canary Is., Corse, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Egypt, France, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kriti, Krym, Lebanon-Syria, Libya, Madeira, Morocco, NW. Balkan Pen., Palestine, Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Transcaucasus, Tunisia, Türkiye, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine, Western Sahara.
• Introduced range : Germany, Great Britain, KwaZulu-Natal, Poland, South Australia.
• Diagnostic remarks : Mouterde treated this taxon under Tragopogon hybridum L., while POWO currently accepts Geropogon hybridus (L.) Sch.Bip. It is readily separated from the Lebanese-Syrian Tragopogon species by its annual habit, pink to violet florets, alveolate fibrillose receptacle, 8 long involucral bracts greatly exceeding the florets, and heteromorphic achenes, with marginal achenes bearing scabrous paleae and inner achenes with a plumose pappus.