Flora-Fauna

Chardinia orientalis (L.) O. Kuntze

(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 442; 1983, as Xeranthemum annuum L. var. orientale L., C. xeranthemoides Desf.)

• Life-form & habit: Annual, dwarf and often branched, 10–30 cm tall, appressed-canescente, resembling Xeranthemum.

• Leaves: Narrowly elliptic to linear, entire, sessile.

• Inflorescence & flowers: Stems ending in solitary capitula; capitula small, with 8–10 flowers, oblong, markedly enlarging in fruit (to c. 2 cm including achenes). Marginal florets cylindrical, 3–5-toothed; central florets hermaphroditic, 5-lobed.

• Involucre: Glabrous; bracts appressed, imbricate, pale, ovate, obtuse, mucronulate; outer bracts ovate, inner ones gradually longer.

• Fruit: Achenes of marginal florets subcompressed, glabrous, winged with denticulate margins, each wing ending in a horn, surmounted by 1–3 rigid paleae; achenes of hermaphroditic florets linear-cylindric, many-grooved, villous at base, crowned by 10 broad, acuminate, denticulate paleae.

• Phenology: Flowers in April–May.

• Habitat & elevation: Stony ground and interior uplands.

• Lebanese distribution: Middle and high mountain: Dahr-el-Baïdar, Jabal Kneissé, Ehden, forest of Ehden, Bcharré, Nahr-el-Kelb, col between Jezzine and Machghara, east of Joub Jannine, Hermon (route of Yanta), Ouadi-el-Harir.

• Syrian distribution: Anti-Lebanon (Ma‘loula, Ouadi-el-Qarn, Bloudane), Hermon (‘Arné, Qalaat Jendel), Damascus and surroundings (Qasyoun, Kessoué, Salibriyé, Qtaifé), Aleppo (‘Azaz, Alep), Jabal Druze (Soueida, Tell Qpuleib, Tell Ahmar, Chahba), Hauran (Khabab), steppe east of Deir ‘Atiyé, Jabal Ghbeil, Jabal Bilas.

• Native range: Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Lebanon-Syria, Pakistan, Palestine, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Turkmenistan, Türkey, Uzbekistan