|
Life form: |
| Hemicryptophyte |
Spinescence: |
| Leaves, bracts |
Stems: |
| Stem bases not surrounded by remains
of old leaves; 100-170 cm tall, few branched, covered with purple (glandular or eglandular) bristles, or
white arachnoid to lanate with purple bristles |
Leaves: |
| Alternate, rosette, lanceolate, dissected twice or more, spinescent; arachnoid or with scabrous and glandular hair above, soft white lanate below. Leaf bases with triangular spiny-lobes, 1/2-2/3 palmate at apex. Uppermost leaves sessile, semi-amplexicaule with lanceolate lobes spiny at ends. Leaf axis usually winged. |
Flowers: |
| Heads 4-6 cm diam., capitula 25-30 mm long, bluish-violet; involucral bracts 19-21, glabrous or woolly; middle bracts 22-30 mm long; inner bracts 20-25 mm long, connate in basal 1/2
or more and accrete in to a membranous cylindrical tube; brush dirty white or straw coloured, 14-18 mm, usually 1/2 as long as involucre; corolla bluish-violet. |
Fruits / pods: |
| Achene elliptic, 12-13 mm; pappus connate at base |
Flowering Period: |
| June, July |
Habitat: |
| Batha, Phrygana |
Distribution: |
| Mediterranean Woodlands and Shrublands, Semi-steppe shrublands, Montane vegetation of Mt. Hermon |
Chorotype: |
| Mediterranean |
Summer shedding: |
| Perennating |