Flora-Fauna

Helminthotheca echioides (L.) Holub

≡ Picris echioides L. — Helminthia echioides (L.) Gaertn.
(Folia Geobot. Phytotax. 8: 176, 1973; Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 510; Pl. CCCXXII nº 1; 1983, as Picris echioides)

• Life-form & habit: Annual, erect or sometimes procumbent, 30–50 cm tall, robust, branched-divaricate from the base.
• Leaves: Oblong-lanceolate, entire or sinuato-denticulate; basal leaves attenuate into a petiole; cauline leaves auriculate-amplexicaul.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Capitula terminal, c. 15 mm long. Outer involucral bracts 3–5, foliaceous, ovate-cordate, acuminate, much longer than the inner ones (lanceolate, subulate, ciliolate). Ligules yellow.
• Fruit: Achenes oblong, muricate with transverse bands, prolonged into a slender fragile beak longer than the body, tipped with a plumose pappus.
• Phenology: Flowers May–July.
• Habitat & elevation: Field margins, ruderal places, road edges.
• Lebanese distribution: Tripoli, north of Tripoli; Hadeth near Beirut; Qrayé; Bikfaya; Bhamdoun; Ehden; Qamoua; Tanaïl; Ta‘labaya; Qabbelias.
• Native range: Albania, Algeria, Azores, Baleares, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Corse, Cyprus, East Aegean Islands, Egypt, France, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kriti, Krym, Lebanon–Syria, Libya, Madeira, Morocco, North Caucasus, NW. Balkan Peninsula, Palestine, Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Transcaucasus, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Turkey-in-Europe (POWO).
• Introduced into: Widely naturalized — including North and South America, southern Africa, Australasia, and parts of Europe and Asia (full POWO list: Alberta, Arizona, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, California, Cape Provinces, Central European Russia, Chatham Islands, Connecticut, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, District of Columbia, Ethiopia, Free State, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Iowa, Ireland, KwaZulu-Natal, Maine, Massachusetts, Mexico Northwest, Missouri, Montana, Netherlands, New Brunswick, New Jersey, New South Wales, New York, New Zealand North, North Dakota, Northern Provinces, Norway, Ohio, Ontario, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Poland, Queensland, Romania, Saskatchewan, South Australia, Switzerland, Tasmania, Uruguay, Vermont, Victoria, Virginia, Western Australia, Zimbabwe).