Flora

Centaurea cyrenaica Bég. & Vacc., it is a perennial ash-grey or whitish, arachnoid-tomentose, erect or ascending, up to 50 cm tail, corymbosely branched . Stems branched from the base, rigid and somewhat brittle. Leaves densely arachnoid-tomentose on both surfaces, somewhat leathery and thick, almost throughout the stem and branches. Basal leaves 15-35 x 7-10 mm, obovate in outline, tapered below into a thin petiole; limb pinnatifid to pinnatipartite. with lobes oblong-lanceolate, terminal lobe largest, often 3-fid. Cauline leaves smaller, shallowly pinnatifid to entire, linear-lanceolate in outline, sessile, often with two lateral projections either at the base of the lamina or between the base and middle of the lamina. Peduncles up to 1 cm long. Capitula usually subtended with 1-2 (-3) leaf-like, minute supplementary involucral bracts. Involucre (6-) 8-12 (-15) mm long, up to 8 mm in diam., ovoid or ovoid-campanulate at anthesis. Involucral bracts of the outermost row 1 x 1 mm, densely arachnoid-hairy with margins lacinate, scarious, median mucros scarious. Involucral bracts of the 2nd row 2 x 1.25 mm (exclude, appendage), coriaceous, broadly ovate, yellowish-green. slightly arachnoid-hairy toward the apices, margins scarious; apical appendages 2-2.25 x 3.5 mm, suborbicular, membranous-yellowish with center dark violet coloured, scabrid on the dorsal surface, deeply 3-partite into erose dentate and deeply lacinate lobes; terminal lobe with a median mucro c. 1 mm long, lateral lobes spreading like wings from near the middle of the involucral bract’s body. Involucral bracts of the 3rd row 2.25-2.5 x 1.25 mm (exclud, appendage), ovate-lanceolate, coriaceous, inconspicuously 3 (-5) veined, slightly hairy near the apices, greenish, margins scarious; apical appendages 3.25-3.5 x 5 mm, scarious, yellowish, with center somewhat coriaceous, violet to dark violet otherwise similar in outline, margins etc. to the preceding involucral bracts appendages. Involucral bract of the 4th row 3-3.25 x 2 mm. (excl appendage) ovate, coriaceous, greenish, indistinctly 3-nerved, margins scarious; apical appendages 4.5 x 4.5-5 mm, nearly or bicualarin outline, strongly convex at the back. broadly scariolls, yellow except center somewhat coriaceous and violet to dark violet, (coriaceous part ovate-lanceolate and prolonged into a median mucro c. 1 mm long). densely scabrid towards the apices and margins, margins erose-dentate and lacinate. Involucral bracts of the 5th row 4 x 2 mm (excl. appendage), similar to the preceding in texture nervation and appendages. Involucral bract of the 6th row 7-7.25 x 2 mm (excl. appendage), linear, coriaceous, glabrous, distinctly 3 (-4)-nerved, greenish, with narrow, scarious, margins; appendages 3 x 3 mm, or bicular in outline, scarious, yellowish with center violet to dark violet, margins erose with median mucro c. 1 ̸ 2 mm. Involucral bract of the 7th row 8 x 1.5 mm, (excl. appendages) linear, similar to the preceding with apical appcndage of 2 x 2 mm, with median mucro directed backwards. Involucral bracts of the inner most row 9 x 1 mm, yellowish, with 1.5 x 1.5 mm scarious, nearly hyaline appendages. Marginal florets sterile, yellow; central florets hermaphrodite, yellow; filaments long hairy; anthers purple. Cypsela glabrous; pappus white; setae scabrid, as long as the cypsela.

Jabal Nafusa:

Tarhuna (Terghlat) 2018

Al-Jabal Al-Akhder:

Tra-al Graib e Tolmeta, U.el Fahaga 1933  (16 km) from Labrag, (30 km) from Lamluda 1972  Wadi Al-Agar 1999  Al-Bakur 2007  Wadi (Valley) Stowah region 2007   Gebel Akhder 2009  Wadi El-Kouf 2014  Wadi Al-Agar 2017  Al-Oylia region 2017   Wadi Om-El-Amaym 2019   Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar 2021

Wild endemic in Libya.

Link of images: https://www.gbif.org/species/3127897

https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:190316-1,  https://www.ipni.org/n/190316-1,  https://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-0000116553,   https://www.gbif.org/species/3127897,  https://africanplantdatabase.ch/en/nomen/specie/136635/centaurea-cyrenaica-b-g-a-vacc