Cousinia libanotica

الوصف النباتي

الأوراق

Leaves: Basal leaves oblong-lanceolate, pinnatifid with large triangular lobes, spiny-mucronate, densely canescent on both surfaces; cauline leaves smaller, sessile, partly decurrent, ending in rigid yellowish spines.

الأزهار

Inflorescence & flowers: Capitula solitary or in small groups at branch ends, 3–4 cm across (excluding spines). Involucral bracts numerous, densely imbricate; outer ones ovate, with a broad scarious margin and ending in a strong spine; median bracts longer, rigid, with a stout erect spine; inner bracts scarious, shorter, obtuse. Florets purple, showy.

الثمار والبذور

Fruit: Achenes brown, striate, with a short pappus of scales.

مواسم النبات

الفنلوجية

Phenology: Flowers July–August.

الانتشار الموثق

Endemic to Lebanon

Lebanese distribution: Endemic to Mount Lebanon — recorded from Bcharré, Ehden, Qornet es-Saouda, Barouk, and surrounding high mountains.

Native range: Endemic to Mount Lebanon (POWO).

⚠️ Author’s note ( https://www.florafauna.life/cousinia-libanotica): It is now evident that Cousinia libanotica is a true Mount Lebanon endemic , morphologically distinct from both C. dayi Post and C. ramosissima DC. While these three species were historically intermingled in floristic treatments, detailed fieldwork and photographic evidence confirm that C. libanotica has unique characters: larger, solitary capitula with conspicuously broad scarious involucral margins, and a restricted high-mountain range in Mount Lebanon . This supports its recognition as a separate, localized taxon of conservation concern.

الارتفاع الموثق

الارتفاع

1,500 m

لمحة نباتية

بنية النبات

Life-form & habit: Robust perennial, 40–100 cm, erect, with stout branched stems, clothed in a dense whitish tomentum.

دورة الحياة

معمرة

الفصيلة والتصنيف

الاسم العلمي المقبول

Cousinia libanotica

الفصيلة

نجمية

نباتات من الفصيلة نفسها

Astartoseris triquetra

قُرطُم نحيل

Carthamus tenuis (Boiss. & Blanche) Bornm.

القنطريون الكحلي

Centaurea cyanoides Berggr. & Wahlenb.

قنطريون أيبيري

Centaurea iberica Spreng.