LEONTODON TUBEROSUS

Family:- COMPOSITAE/Sect. LEONTODON

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- Thyrincia tuberosa

Meaning:- Leontodon (Gr) Lion's-tooth.

Tuberosus (L) Swollen, tuberous.

General description:- Perennial with long, slender tubers.

Stems:-

1) 1-6, 7-35 cm, simple, with few to numerous, rigid, simple eglandular or long-

stalked 2- to 3-fid hairs.

Leaves:-

1) 20-140 x 5-25 mm, obovate to oblanceolate-oblong, more or less obtuse,

retrorse-dentate to runcinate-pinnatifid, narrowed to a sometimes dentate petiole,

with numerous rigid, long-stalked 2- to 3-fid hairs.

Flowers:-

1) Capitulum solitary.

2) Involucre 9-15 x 6-10 mm.

3) Bracts, 0-2, oblong, narrowed to an obtuse apex, glabrous or with rigid, long-

stalked 2-fid hairs often confined to a median line.

4) Ligules yellow, the outer with a greenish stripe on the outer face.

5) Stigmas yellow or discoloured.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes 3-7 mm, transversely rugose or muricate, of 2 kinds:

a) outer curved, sometimes with a short beak and with a pappus of hairs not

more than 0·5 mm.

b) inner usually straight, beaked, the pappus of 2 rows of plumose hairs.

Key features:-

1) At least some hairs on the leaves stellate or 2- to 7-fid.

2) Outer achenes with a pappus of short scales, or hairs not more than 1 mm.

3) Plant with tubers.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Open dry shrubby vegetation, dolines, fallow fields, olive groves. 0-800(-

1900) m.

Distribution:- Widespread and common throughout the Mediterranean. Widespread

and common on Crete.

Flowering time:- Mar-June.

Photos by:- Enda McMullen