CARLINA SITIENSIS

Family:- COMPOSITAE/Subgen. CARLINA

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Carlina (L) For Charlemagne (742-814) Emperor of Rome (whose army

was supposed to have been cured of the plague with a species of Carlina, which the

Archangel had revealed to him).

Sitiensis (L) From the area of Sitia E. Crete.

General description:- Rigid perennIal, subglabrous or sparsely covered in short

soft, matted hairs, resembling a spider's web.

Stem:-

1) One to several erect 20-70 cm tall, usually corymbosely branched above.

Leaves:-

1) Ovate-lanceolate, ± amplexicaul, spinose-dentate or pinnatifid.

Flowers:-

1) Outer phyllaries spinose-dentate, much exceeding the capitulurn, with long

terminal spines.

2) Inner resembling ligules, 10-16 mm, carmine-red to silvery above, purplish-red

beneath.

3) Florets yellow.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes c. 2.5 mm, with a long pappus of plumose hairs.

Key features:-

1) Inner phyllaries pale carmine-red to silvery above, purplish-red beneath.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Open dry shrubby vegetation, on rocky slopes, dry grassland, fallow

fields, ruderal habitats, 0-600(1400) m.

Distribution:- Endemic to E.Crete and Kasos, with one new location recorded from

the west.

Flowering time:- May-July

Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis and Steve Lenton