SENECIO RUPESTRIS
Family and Genus:- See- COMPOSITAE/Sect. JACOBAEA
Common Names:- None
Homotypic Synonyms:- Senecio squalidus subsp. rupestris, Senecio squalidus
var. rupestris.
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.
Rupestris (L) Of rock, living in rocky places.
General description:- Annual or short-lived perennial, glabrous or with sparse,
arachnoid indumentum.
Stem:-
1) One to several, ascending, 5-30 cm.
Leaves:-
1) Almost glabrescent above, the
a) lower, usually pinnatifid with rather distant lobes, attenuate into a winged
petiole.
b) upper cauline, more or less pinnatifid, auriculate-amplexicaul, (more rarely all
leaves dentate).
Flowers:-
1) Capitula, 15-25 mm. diam, few to numerous in a lax, irregular corymb.
2) Involucral bracts c. 20, 7-10 mm, narrowly campanulate.
a) outer, phyllaries 8-12.
b) inner, 18-24, all black-tipped.
3) Ligules, c. 13, 10-12 mm, bright yellow.
Fruit:-
1) Achenes, 2.5-3 mm, cylindrical, strigulose.
Key features:-
1) At least some leaves ± pinnatifid.
2) Supplementary bracts, 5-13, usually black-tipped; 1/4 as long as the involucre.
3) Leaves, entire or with ± remote, patent teeth.
4) Stems, branched from the base or the middle.
5) Young shoots, subglabrous to floccose.
6) Branches, of the inflorescence ± patent.
7) Achenes, 2-3 mm.
Habitat:- Rocky and stony slopes, damp screes, mainly on limestone. 200-2450m.
Distribution:- C. & SE. Europe, fairly common in the mountains of mainland
Greece, but rare and scattered in the Aegean, Abundantly naturalised and local
elsewhere. Rare on Crete known only from the Kotsifou gorge.
Flowering time:- May-Aug.
Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis and Uta Vrasna
SPECIES DESCRIPTION
