Flora-Fauna

Onopordum cynarocephalum Boiss. & C.I.Blanche

(Diagn. Pl. Orient., ser. 2, 3: 48, 1856; Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 462; Pl. CCLXIX nº 1; 1983)

• Life-form & habit: Robust thistle, 1.5–2.5 m tall, with stems and branches divaricate-corymbose; indumentum arachnoid, deciduous, finely glandular-viscid. Branches long, winged, the wings pinnatipartite, armed with strong spines.
• Leaves: Lower leaves lanceolate, elongate, bullate-rugose, pinnatilobed or pinnatipartite with short spiny lobes; cauline leaves very reduced, decurrent.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Capitula large, 3.5–5 cm in diameter (excluding spines). Involucral bracts glabrous or slightly arachnoid, imbricate, oblong-triangular to lanceolate, broad (5–8 mm), gradually attenuate to a sharp apex, all appressed or very slightly spreading. Corolla purplish.
• Fruit: Achenes ovoid, smooth; pappus scabrid, caducous.
• Phenology: Flowers May–August.
• Habitat & elevation: Regions of Mediterranean climate, from the coast to montane zones.
• Lebanese distribution: Tripoli, Saïda, Nahr el-Kelb, Sofar, ‘Araya, Djoun, Boq‘ata, Hasroun, ‘Ain Sindiané, Sir–Beqa‘ Safreine, ‘Ain Zehalta, Qala‘at ech-Chekif.
• Syrian distribution: Quneitra, south of Quneitra.
• Native range: Lebanon, Syria, Palestine.

Diagnostic remark: One of the most distinctive Levantine Onopordum species, readily recognised by its large capitula with broad, strictly appressed involucral bracts