''Cephalaria leucantha'' is a species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s in the family

Caprifoliaceae The Caprifoliaceae or honeysuckle family is a clade of dicotyledonous flowering plants consisting of about 860 species, in 33, to 42 genera, with a nearly cosmopolitan distribution. Centres of diversity are found in eastern North America an ...

Description

''Cephalaria leucantha'' grows to in height. This hardy

perennial 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 wid ...

plant has a long stem with divided, fern-like leaves. It produces white or pale lemon flowers from July to November.

Distribution

This species is present in northern Africa and in southern Europe (Albania, former Yugoslavia, Greece, Italy, France, Portugal, and Spain).

History

The species was described as ''Scabiosa trenta'' by

Belsazar Hacquet Belsazar de la Motte Hacquet (also Balthasar or Balthazar Hacquet) (c. 1739 – 10 January 1815) was a Carniolan physician of French descent in the Enlightenment Era. He was a war surgeon, a surgeon in the mining town of Idrija, and a professor o ...

in 1782. This resulted in a century-long search by other botanists to find the new species that Hacquet had described in the

Julian Alps The Julian Alps ( sl, Julijske Alpe, it, Alpi Giulie, , ) are a mountain range of the Southern Limestone Alps that stretch from northeastern Italy to Slovenia, where they rise to 2,864 m at Mount Triglav, the highest peak in Slovenia. A large p ...

. It was not until 1893 that the Austrian botanist

Anton Kerner von Marilaun Anton Kerner Ritter von Marilaun, or Anton Joseph Kerner, (12 November 1831 – 21 June 1898) was an Austrian botanist and professor at the University of Vienna. Career Kerner was born in Mautern, Lower Austria, and studied medicine in Vienna f ...

determined that Hacquet's species was actually ''Cephalaria leucantha'', which is now extinct in the Julian Alps.

References

* Tutin, T. G. et al., eds. 1964–1980. Flora europaea. leucantha {{Dipsacales-stub