Flora-Fauna

Orlaya daucoides (L.) Greuter

First published in Boissiera 13: 92 (1967)

(Mouterde treats it as Caucalis daucoides L.; Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, p. 594)

• Life-form & habit: Annual herb with spreading, sparse setose hairs. Stems branched from the base, 10–40 cm tall, glabrous.

• Leaves: Outline oval; tripinnatisected. Segments divided into very short linear lobes, pinnatipartite or finely pinnatisect.

• Inflorescence & flowers: Umbels long-pedunculate with 2–3(–5) rays. Involucellar bracts short, lanceolate, few. Flowers white. Petals slightly radiating.
Fruit elliptic–oblong, with 8 rows of strong, sharp, hooked spines, attenuate at both ends, and crowned by the persistent calyx. Style equal in length to the stylopodium.

• Fruit: Strongly spined schizocarp; spines diagnostic and much thicker than in Torilis spp.

• Phenology: May – July.

• Habitat & elevation: Montane habitats (Mouterde notes it as a species of mountain regions).

• Lebanese distribution: Recorded from Rahoué above Tannourine and from the Cedar forest region (Herb. Post).

• Native range: Albania, Algeria, Bulgaria, Corse, Cyprus, East Aegean Islands, France, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kriti, Krym, Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, NW Balkan Peninsula, Palestine, Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Transcaucasus, Tunisia, Türkiye, Türkiye-in-Europe (POWO).

• Introduced into: Germany (POWO).

• ⚠️ Taxonomic note: Treated by Mouterde strictly under Caucalis and clearly separated from Torilis species by the massive, thick spines of the fruit, which are the primary diagnostic character he emphasises.