CYNARA CYRENAICA

Family:- COMPOSITAE

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Cynara (Gr) Dog.

Cyrenaica (L) From Cyrenaica, Libya.

General description:- Perennial herb with enlarged, palisade-like root.

Stems:- Upright with a few branches, height up to 80 cm, width 6-10 mm, with 14 to

20 striations, with short and dense white woolly hairs, glandular.

Leaves:- Few basal leaves forming a level large rosette, petiole short or absent,

lamina with outline broadly elliptical, deeply double lobed, dimensions 30-40 x 20-

30 cm, rachis width 4-9 mm, with short and dense white woolly hairs, main lobes

with narrowly lanceolate outline, secondary lobes extended horizontally and in an

alternating way from the rachis, not straight and forming an angle of about 45? with

it, linear-lanceolate and green on the upper surface, with short and dense white

woolly hairs, slightly glandular on the lower surface, margin twisted, termination

pointed, brown-yellow spine. Stem leaves similar to basal leaves, but shorter and

with lanceolate outline, double lobed on the lower half, simply lobed on the upper

half, 10-30 x 5-10 cm, higher leaves almost without petiole (subsessile), narrowly

lanceolate in outline, simply lobed along their whole length.

Flowers:- Solitary heads at end of stems. Bracts 60-70, in 5-7 rows, leathery, outer

bracts blue-green, moderately to intensely violet, triangular to ovate, 6-8 x c. 3mm,

moderately hairy, sharp tip ending in spine, middle bracts blue-green, frequently

with strong violet tones, sometimes with deep purple spots, broadly longitudinal, 10-

13 x 8-11 mm, slightly hairy to hairless, tip tapered abruptly to a part narrowly

linear, straight, level, length 3-4 cm, ending in a sharp, brown-yellow spine; inner

bracts with shades of brown or red, almost linear, c. 3 cm x 3-3.5 mm, with sharp

tip. Scales of recepticle 2-3 cm. Ray florets 70-80, corolla 3-4 cm x 1-1.5 mm, edge

purple or violet, 1-1.3 cm. Anthers almost white, length 6,5-7,5 mm. Styles purple,

c. 4 cm, with lobes of length 6.5-8 mm. Calyx straw-coloured, wing-shaped,

consisting of 100-150 hard level hairs 2-3 cm x 0.15-0.25 mm, in 3-5 rows.

Fruit:- Mature achenes oval, inflated, length 4-5 mm, black and white.

Key features:-

Habitat:- Slightly to very disturbed ground in limestone substratum. Also in open

sunny places at the edges of olive groves or cultivated fields, in terraces, at the

bottom of ditches and dry stone walls, as well as limestone rocks, sparse bushes

and low growth chiefly of annual herbs. 200-700 m.

Distribution:- Endemic Crete & NE. Libya. Limited distribution on Crete, known

from a very small area between Aghios Nikolaos and Ierapetra in E. Crete. Very

rare.

Flowering time:- May-June

Photos by:- Steve Lenton

FAMILY AND GENUS DESCRIPTIONS

COMPOSITAE

General description:- Herbs or shrubs.

Leaves:- Alternate, opposite or arranged in a rosette (rosulate), exstipulate.

Flowers:- Small (florets), hermaphrodite, functionally male, female, or sterile, in

terminal or axillary, usually stalked (pedunculate) capitula, surrounded by an

involucre of bracts. Capitula solitary or in corymbose, less frequently racemose,

inflorescences. Calyx-limb (pappus) absent or represented by a corona, auricle,

scales, stiff hairs (setae) or simple or softly feathered (plumose) hairs. Corolla of 3

main types: (a) tubular, with (3-)4- to 5-lobed limb, actinomorphic or rarely weakly

zygomorphic; (b) tubular, with a 2-lipped limb; (c) ligulate, with a short tube and the

limb prolonged on one side into a usually 3- or 5-toothed ligule; female florets

sometimes without a corolla or with a thread-like (filiform) corolla. Stamens 5,

united with the petals (epipetalous); anthers usually united (connate) into a tube

round the style, often abruptly ending in a long tail-like or appendage tip (caudate)

or arrowhead-shaped (sagittate) at base and with apical appendages. Ovary inferior,

single-celled (1-locular); ovule solitary, basal, bent parallel to its stalk so the

micropyle is close to the point of funiculus attachment (anatropous); style solitary,

with 2 stigmatic branches.

Fruit:- A cypsela (achene).

The length of the involucre is measured from the base of the capitulum. Pappus-

hairs are described as plumose when the length of the branches is at least 3 times

the diameter of the main hair but much shorter than it.

CYNARA

General description:- Perennial herbs.

Stems:- Erect, striate to ribbed, sometimes absent.

Leaves:- In a basal rosette or alternate, usually deeply divided and with spiny

segments.

Flowers:- Capitula solitary or in a sparingly branched, corymbose cyme. Involucre

ovoid to globose; involucral bracts overlapping (imbricate), glabrous, the outer and

middle with a stout spine or an ovate to triangular appendage at the apex.

Receptacle fleshy, the scales setaceous. Florets all hermaphrodite. Corolla

purplish, blue or white, tubular, 5-fid; style long-exserted.

Fruit:- Achenes obpyramidal or obovoid-cylindrical, glabrous; pappus of many rows

of feathery (plumose), dirty white hairs united (connate) at the base.

Key features:-

1) Receptacle fleshy with scales.

2) Florets subequal.

3) Pappus present, at least partly of plumose hairs.

Sect. CYNARA

Stems:- Present.

Leaves:- Cauline 1- to 2-pinnatifid, with lanceolate to oblong, flat, dentate to

pinnatifid segments.

Flowers:- Involucre ovoid to globose; involucral bracts with a stout, pungent apical

spine or an ovate to triangular, appendage ending abruptly in a sharp point (mucro).

Fruit:- Achenes not winged.

Protection status:-

Listed in "The Red Data Book of Rare and Threatened Plants of Greece" as "VU"

vulerable.