SENECIO LEUCANTHEMIFOLIUS

Family:- COMPOSITAE/Sect. SENECIO

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Senecio (L) Old-man, a name used by the Roman naturalist and

philosopher Pliny, reference to the grey hairiness as soon as fruiting starts.

Leucanthemifolius (L) With leaves resembling those of

Leucanthemum.

General description:- Annual. Subglabrous or sparsely floccose annual.

Stem:-

1) 5-25 cm. usually several, slender, ascending, simple or sparingly branched.

Leaves:-

1) Broadly oblanceolate in outline, slightly fleshy, coarsely dentate to pinnatisect.

a) lower sometimes obovate and scarcely divided.

b) upper with linear-oblong segments.

Flowers:-

1) Capitulum 15-22 mm diam.

2) Involucral bracts 5-7 mm, linear-lanceolate, glabrous, concolorous; often black

tipped, supplementary bracts, several, up to 2 mm, usually blackish.

3) Ligules c. 13, c. 8 mm, yellow above, reddish beneath.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes 2-3 mm, 8-10-ribbed, pubescent between the ribs.

2) Pappus c. 5 mm.

Key features:-

1) Subglabrous, usually fleshy, with unlobed ± obovate basal leaves.

2) Auricles of the upper cauline leaves entire or shallowly dentate.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Sandy coasal habitats, open dry shrubby vegetation on rocky slopes,

roadside gravel, screes, fallow fields. 0-600(-1200) m.

Distribution:- Mainly the central and western Mediterranean. rare on Crete known

from only a few scattered locations in mainly coastal areas.

Flowering Time:- Late Mar to early June.

Photo by:- Steve Lenton