Family |
Asteraceae
Gelasia rigida
(Aucher ex DC.) Zaika, Sukhor. & N.Kilian
Gelasia rigida (Aucher ex DC.) Zaika, Sukhor. & N.Kilian
≡ Scorzonera rigida Aucher ex DC.
(First published under current name in PhytoKeys 137: 58, 2020; treated in Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 516; 1983, as Scorzonera rigida)
• Life-form & habit: Perennial, appressed-canescent, 10–40 cm tall. Rhizome thick, branched, densely scaly, forming tight tufts. Stems slender, rigid, simple, monocaphalous or bifurcate at the base, exceeding the leaves.
• Leaves: Glaucous, sheathing at the base, narrowly linear, sometimes slightly flexuose. Cauline leaves absent or very short.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Capitula small, 1–1.5 cm, pauciflorous. Involucre appressed-canescent with few bracts. Flowers yellow, the outer ones three times longer than the involucre.
• Fruits: Achenes glabrous with obtuse ribs, topped by a pappus of setae plumose at the base, scabrid at the apex.
• Phenology: Flowers June–September.
• Habitat & elevation: High mountain summits.
• Lebanese distribution: Jabal Kneissé, Jabal Sannine, Dimane–Yammouné, Col des Cèdres, high Makmel, Rijal el-‘Asharah, Hermon; Anti-Lebanon above Baalbeck.
• Native range: Iran, Lebanon–Syria, Palestine, Transcaucasus, Turkey (POWO).
• Diagnostic remarks: Distinguished from S. mackmeliana by its narrower leaves, much more rigid and usually longer stems