SENECIO RUPESTRIS

Family:- COMPOSITAE/Sect. JACOBAEA

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- Senecio squalidus subsp. rupestris, Senecio squalidus var.

rupestris.

Meaning:- Senecio (L) Old-man, a name used by the Roman naturalist and

philosopher Pliny, reference to the grey hairiness as soon as fruiting starts.

Rupestris (L) Of rock, living in rocky places.

General description:- Annual or short-lived perennial, glabrous or with sparse,

arachnoid indumentum.

Stem:-

1) One to several, ascending, 5-30 cm.

Leaves:-

1) Almost glabrescent above, the

a) lower usually pinnatifid with rather distant lobes, attenuate into a winged

petiole.

b) upper cauline more or less pinnatifid, auriculate-amplexicaul, (more rarely all

leaves dentate).

Flowers:-

1) Capitula 15-25 mm. diam, few to numerous in a lax, irregular corymb.

2) Involucral bracts c. 20, 7-10 mm, narrowly campanulate.

a) outer phyllaries 8-12.

b) inner 18-24, all black-tipped.

3) Ligules c. 13, 10-12 mm, bright yellow.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes 2.5-3 mm, cylindrical, strigulose.

Key features:-

1) At least some leaves ± pinnatifid.

2) Supplementary bracts 5-13, usually black-tipped; 1/4 as long as the involucre.

3) Leaves entire or with ± remote, patent teeth.

4) Stems branched from the base or the middle.

5) Young shoots subglabrous to floccose.

6) Branches of the inflorescence ± patent.

7) Achenes 2-3 mm.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Rocky and stony slopes, damp screes, mainly on limestone. 200-2450

Distribution:- C. & SE. Europe, fairly common in the mountains of mainland

Greece, but rare and scattered in the Aegean, Abundantly naturalised and local

elsewhere. Rare on Crete known only from the Kotsifou gorge.

Flowering time:- May-Aug.

Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis and Uta Vrasna