''Pentanema squarrosum'', known as ploughman's-spikenard, is a species of

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

in the family

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

found in Europe, North Africa, and the

Near East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

.Altervista Flora Italiana, ''Inula conyzae'' (Griess.) DC.
includes photos and European distribution map It is a tall, hairy plant (to 1.2 m) that grows on

calcareous Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines. In zoology ''Calcareous'' is used as an adje ...

, low-nutrient, well-drained soils. It is a short lived

perennial plant A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

. Before flowering, the basal rosette of leaves resembles those of

foxgloves ''Digitalis'' ( or ) is a genus of about 20 species of herbaceous perennial plants, shrubs, and biennials, commonly called foxgloves. ''Digitalis'' is native to Europe, western Asia, and northwestern Africa. The flowers are tubular in shap ...

. It flowers after mid-summer in Europe, from July to September. When in flower, the plant has many small flowerheads grouped together into a flat-topped structure that resembles a single flowerhead (

pseudanthium A pseudanthium (Greek for "false flower"; ) is an inflorescence that resembles a flower. The word is sometimes used for other structures that are neither a true flower nor a true inflorescence. Examples of pseudanthia include flower heads, compos ...

). The individual flowerheads have prominent yellow disc florets and no (or inconspicuous) ray florets.

References

External links

photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, collected in Spain
squarrosum Flora of Europe Flora of Asia Flora of North Africa Plants described in 1836 {{Inuleae-stub