SPECIES DESCRIPTION
CENTAUREA PUMILIO

Family:- COMPOSITAE/Sect. AEGLALOPHILA

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- Aegialophila pumilio, Crocodilium pumilio.

Meaning:- Centaurea (Gr) Centaur, Centauros. The centaur Chiron was cured of a
hoof wound with this plant.
                  Pumilio (L) Very small, low, small, dwarf.

General description:- Perennial, with thick, cylindrical root tubers and a spar-
ingly branched woody stock.

Stem:-
1) Very short, simple or branched.

Leaves:-
1) In a basal rosette, irregularly lyrate-pinnatifid, grey-tomentose.

Flowers:-
1) Capitula, short-pedunculate, in small clusters.
2) Involucre, c. 20 mm. diam, ovoid.
3) Upper part of middle phyllaries with a broad, scarious, dentate-lacerate border 
    and a weak apical spine 4-9 mm.
4) Florets pink, outer slightly longer than the inner, marginal, widely radiating. 

Fruit:-
1) Achenes 3-4 mm.
2) Pappus 3 times as long as the achene, reddish, outer hairs plumose, innermost
    row subulate setae.

Key features:-
1) Apical spine of appendages 5-9 mm.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Sandy and gravelly seashores, local but sometimes gregarious, rarely in
rocky habitats some distance inland, up to 200 m.

Distribution:- Known from the Ionian island of Kefalonia, the island of Elafonisos
(between southern Peloponnisos and Kithira) and north-eastern Africa and Syria.
In Crete occurs only in the far west.

Flowering time:- Mid-Apr to June.

Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis

Status:-
Conservation status (for threatened species): Rare (R) according to IUCN 1997 
Protection status (for threatened species): Greek Presidential Decree 67/1981