Flora-Fauna

Jurinea staehelinae (DC.) Boiss.

(First published in Diagn. Pl. Orient. 6: 111; 1846. Treated in Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, p. 713; 1969)

• Life-form & habit: Perennial, densely tomentose herb with thickened woody rootstock; stems 15–50 cm, erect, usually branched above, lanate-canescent.
• Leaves: Basal leaves oblong-lanceolate to oblanceolate, pinnatifid to pinnatisect, densely white-tomentose beneath; cauline leaves smaller, sessile, semi-amplexicaul.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Capitula solitary or few, large, globose; involucre broadly ovoid, bracts numerous, lanceolate, often purple-tipped, tomentose outside; florets tubular, reddish-purple.
• Fruit: Achenes cylindrical, 4–5 mm, ribbed; pappus bristles numerous, scabrid, plumose in the upper part.
• Phenology: Flowering June–July.
• Habitat & elevation: Dry rocky mountain slopes, steppes, limestone plateaus; 900–1 900 m.
• Lebanese distribution: Bekaa and Anti-Lebanon (Ras Baalbek, Jabal el-Arab frontier), Hermon; reported also from Fneideq and northern Lebanon.
• Syrian distribution: Anti-Lebanon (Bloudane, Nebk), Jabal Druze (Salkhad, Chahba), Palmyrene outskirts.
• Native range: Lebanon, Syria, Israel/Palestine, Jordan, Sinai (Euro+Med).

⚠️ Taxonomic note: Sometimes confused with Jurinea consanguinea DC.; Mouterde emphasized its distinctive dense lanate indumentum and broader capitula.