''Pallenis spinosa'', commonly known as spiny starwort or spiny golden star, is an annual

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

plant belonging to the genus ''

Pallenis ''Pallenis'' is a small genus of flowering plants in the tribe Inuleae within the family Asteraceae. The name is derived from ''palea'' (chaff), referring to the chaffy receptacle. This is primarily a Mediterranean genus, occurring in desert ...

'' of 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 ...

. The Latin name of the genus is derived from ''palea'' (chaff), referring to the chaffy receptacle, while the species name ''spinosa'', meaning spiny, refers to the spiny bracts surrounding the flowers.

Description

''Pallenis spinosa'' reaches on average of height. Leaves are alternate, lanceolate or elliptical. The basal ones have short petioles, while the cauline ones are sessile or semiamplexicaul. A solitary

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

grows at the top of the branches. The large, slightly convex receptacle shows numerous, yellowish orange, hermaphrodite disc florets and two whorls of yellow ray florets. The long, villous, involucral

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s end in an apical sharp-pointed spine. The flowering period extends from May through July. Fruits are

achene An achene (; ), also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenocarp, is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate (formed from one carpel) and indehiscent (they do not ope ...

s of about 2–2,5 millimeters of length.

Gallery

Distribution

This plant occurs in desert and coastal

habitats In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

of Southern Europe, North Africa, the Canary Islands and the Middle East.

Habitat

These plants can survive in very dry environments and can be found on uncultivated sunny lands and on the roadsides at above sea level.

References

* Judd, W.S., Campbell, C.S., Kellog, E.A. & Donoghue, M.J. (2002): Plant Systematics: a phylogenetic approach, Sinauer, Sunderland, Mass. * Pignatti S. - Flora d'Italia - Edagricole – 1982. vol. III

External links

Biolib

Pallenis

Oil of P. spinosa
Inuleae Flora of Europe Flora of North Africa Flora of Central Asia Flora of Western Asia Flora of Italy Flora of the Canary Islands Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Inuleae-stub