Flora-Fauna

Tragopogon buphthalmoides (DC.) Boiss.

(First published in Fl. Orient. 3: 750; 1875. Treated in Nouv. Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 513, Pl. CCCXXIV nº 1–3; 1984)

• Life-form & habit: Glabrous or partly flocculose perennial, with a vertical cylindrical root and erect, simple or branched stems 20–50 cm tall.

• Leaves: Generally 7-nerved, oblong-lanceolate to linear-lanceolate depending on the variety; basal leaves attenuate into a petiole and withering by flowering time; cauline leaves semi-amplexicaul, often long-acuminate.

• Inflorescence & flowers: Peduncles slightly thickened toward the top; capitula large (2–4 cm across), with 8–10 involucral bracts exceeding but not greatly surpassing the ligulate violet to reddish flowers.

• Fruit: Marginal achenes striated, muriquely scaly, tapering into a short beak and crowned by a blackish cupule bearing a whitish to rufous plumose pappus; central achenes narrower with shallower ribs and a less distinct beak.

• Phenology: Flowers April – July.

• Habitat & elevation: Grasslands, rocky mountain slopes, pastures, and field edges from the coastal plain to high mountains.

• Lebanese distribution: Barouk, Bhamdoun, Rayfoun, col de Zahlé, col de Togra, Sannine, Laqlouq, Tannourine, Hasroun, Dimane, Les Cèdres, Makmel, Ta‘naïl, Ksara, Nebi Chiite, Rachaya; also in the Anti-Lebanon (Yabroud, Bloudane, Tal‘aat Moussa, Jabal Halimé, Ma‘loula).

• Native range: Turkey, Cyprus, Rhodes, Jabal Sinjar, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Transjordan.

• ⚠️ Taxonomic note: A variable species with narrow-leaved (var. stenophyllum, var. humile) and broad-leaved (var. latifolius) forms described by Boissier. The typical form (var. buphthalmoides) is common in Lebanon. Closely related to T. longirostris but distinguished by its yellow ligules and bracts slightly exceeding the flowers.