Flora-Fauna

Cirsium phyllocephalum Boiss. & Blanche in Boiss.

= Lophiolepis phyllocephala (Boiss. & C.I. Blanche)
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 455; 1983)

• Life-form & habit: Robust perennial, slightly greyish, arachnoid or glabrescent; stem thick, erect, reddish, 50–100 cm or more.

• Leaves: Rugose-spinulose above, glabrous or faintly arachnoid beneath, with prominent veins; pinnatisect to pinnatipartite, lobes lanceolate, ending in strong yellow spines; cauline leaves amplexicaul, rigid.

• Inflorescence & flowers: Capitula often paired, 1–1.5(–2) cm long, somewhat attenuate at the top, surrounded by long spiny floral leaves, their narrow rachis often exceeding the heads. Involucre glabrous or nearly so, bracts numerous, tightly imbricate, slightly keeled, subequal, briefly acute, spinescent at apex.

• Fruit: Achenes dark brown-black, compressed, shining; pappus persistent, composed of many plumose bristles.

• Phenology: Flowers July–October.

• Habitat & elevation: Roadsides, cultivated fields, and disturbed soils.

• Lebanese distribution: Coastal and inland hills: Nahr el-Kelb; mid-mountains: Broummana, Jebaa, Machmouché, ‘Abey, Ghoueir, ‘Aley, Beit Méri, Bsouss, Qrayyé; high mountains: Dimane, Ehden, Dahr el-Baïdar, Falougha–Baïdar road, Cedars of Bcharré, below Qornayel; Beqaa: Ta‘naïl.

• Syrian distribution: Hermon (eastern slopes); Jabal Druze (Soueida, Kafer).

• Native range: Lebanon, Syria, Palestine