Centaurea alba

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Centaurea alba
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Centaurea
Species:
C. alba
Binomial name
Centaurea alba

Centaurea alba is a species of

nominate, there are furthermore three varieties
.

It has been called pale knapweed in English.

Vernacular names which have been recorded for this herb in Castilian Spanish are calcitrapa, cardo estrellado, centaura estrellada, garbanzos del cura,[2][3][4] siempre nueva,[2][3] siempre-nueva,[4] and trapacaballos.[2][3][4] Other local recorded names in Spanish are abreojos, abrepuños, amargosa, amargosilla, amargoso, ardolla, arzolla, cardo abrepuños, cardo de la arzolla, marbosilla, margosilla, piropo, planta para hemorroides and raíz de la arzolla.[4] In the Catalan language it is known as raspallera in the Valencian dialect.[2][3][4]

Taxonomy

The species was first

paraphyletic, because it was based on a species, C. centaurium -the type species, which was less related to the vast majority of other Centaurea than to species which were classified as belonging to other genera. In 2001 Werner Greuter solved this by moving the C. centaurium to the old, resurrected genus Rhaponticoides, conserving the name Centaurea for the majority of the other species, and electing C. paniculata to serve as the new type species.[3][6][8]

The

infraspecific taxonomy has been rather volatile since the 1970s. A large number of former subspecies were recognised at one time or another.[9] These were synonymised
over the last century or so, or are now considered independent species.

  • Centaurea alba subsp. albanica (Halácsy) Dostál - a taxon from Albania.
  • Centaurea alba subsp. brunnea (Halácsy) Dostál
  • Centaurea alba subsp. ciliata (Font Quer ex O.Bolòs & Vigo) Greuter
  • Centaurea alba subsp. costae (Willk.) Dostál
  • Centaurea alba subsp. formanekii (Halácsy) Dostál
  • Centaurea alba subsp. latronum (Pau) Dostál
  • Centaurea alba subsp. macrocephala (Pau) Talavera
  • Centaurea alba subsp. maluqueri (Font Quer) Molero & Vigo
  • Centaurea alba subsp. montsicciana (Pau & Font Quer) Romo
  • Centaurea alba subsp. strepens (Hoffmanns. & Link) Rocha Afonso
  • Centaurea alba subsp. subciliaris (Boiss. & Heldr.) Dostál
  • Centaurea alba subsp. tartesiana Talavera

In his 1976 contribution in the Flora Europaea, Josef Dostál recognised subsp. albanica, subsp. brunnea, subsp. costae, subsp. deusta, subsp. formanekii, subsp. latronum and subsp. subciliaris.[6]

A

lectotype was assigned by Salvador Talavera Lozano in 1984.[6]

The 2006 entry by Greuter in the Euro+Med Plantbase, based on a critical evaluation of the information from the Flora Europaea and the Med-Checklist, recognised the following infraspecific taxa:[2]

  • Centaurea alba subsp. ciliata (O. Bolòs & Vigo) Greuter
  • Centaurea alba subsp. costae (Willk.) Dostál
  • Centaurea alba subsp. latronum (Pau) Dostál
  • Centaurea alba subsp. macrocephala (Pau) Talavera
  • Centaurea alba subsp. maluqueri (Font Quer) Molero & Vigo
  • Centaurea alba subsp. montsicciana (Pau & Font Quer) Romo
  • Centaurea alba subsp. strepens (Hoffmanns. & Link) Rocha Afonso
  • Centaurea alba subsp. tartesiana Talavera

In 2008 the

Flora Ibérica follows this interpretation, although it only briefly mentions the three varieties.[3]

  • Centaurea alba subsp. alba var. alba
  • Centaurea alba subsp. alba var. latronum (Pau) E.López & Devesa
  • Centaurea alba subsp. alba var. macrocephala Pau
  • Centaurea alba subsp. aristifera (Pau ex Vicioso) E.López & Devesa
  • Centaurea alba subsp. tartesiana Talavera

The name C. deusta, a species more widely distributed in southern Italy, Greece and Turkey,[7] has also historically been mistakenly said to occur in Spain, for example by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in 1838 in the Prodromus, in the 1865 issue of the Prodromus Florae Hispanicae of Heinrich Moritz Willkomm and Johan Lange, or by Carl Fredrik Nyman in his Conspectus Florae Europaeae (1878-1884).[2][6] Dostál subsumed C. deusta in the Flora Europaea as C. alba subsp. deusta,[6] and this taxon continued to be recognised as occurring in Spain in the 2001 entry in the Atlas de la flora del Pirineo Aragonés.[2]

Hybrids

All of the species in the subgenus Centaurea appear to be able to hybridise freely with each other,

nominate form with C. langei subsp. kheilii creates the hybrid C. ×bigerrensis, and with C. aristata, C. ×matritensis is created. The variety latronum is also known to cross with C. calcitra, creating C. ×eliasii, recognisable by having its involucral bracts being tipped by a large and sharp spine.[3] Another hybrid of the species has also recently (2009) been described from a 1988 collection in an industrial zone in the Province of Soria: Centaurea ×soriana A.Segura ex Mateo & M.B.Crespo.[1][10] The other parent of the hybrid is C. paniculata subsp. castellana.[10] Lastly, in the Province of Soria relatively frequently transitional forms between the nominate variety alba with C. alba subsp. aristifera can be encountered.[3]

Description

It is most similar to

involucral bracts. C. costae has bilobed bracts.[3][6]

  • Centaurea alba subsp. alba -
  • Centaurea alba subsp. aristifera -
  • Centaurea alba subsp. tartesiana -

Distribution

It only occurs on the

sympatric and have discreet geographical distributions. Two taxa have disjunct distributions, subsp. tartesiana to the south of the main distribution, and var. macrocephala further to the south of that, at the southernmost tip of continental Spain.[6]

For a long time it was believed to grow in northeast

wilaya.[12] This population is now seen as a synonym of C. djebel-amouri, which was only recently described as a new species by Greuter in 2003; the previous name C. alba for the population is now attributed as "auct. Afr. N. non L.".[12][13]

Plants from Italy, France and possibly Albania have also historically been misidentified as C. alba.[2]

  • Centaurea alba subsp. alba
    • C. alba subsp. alba var. alba -
    • C. alba subsp. alba var. latronum -
    • C. alba subsp. alba var. macrocephala - A disjunct population restricted to the southernmost tip of Spain, from the mouth of the Guadalquivir emptying in the Gulf of Cádiz northeastwards into the Baetic Depression, entirely within the Province of Cádiz.[15]
  • Centaurea alba subsp. aristifera -
  • Centaurea alba subsp. tartesiana - An
    endemic of the northwest corner of Andalusia. It occurs in the western part of the Sierra Morena mountain range, in the provinces of Huelva and Sevilla.[15]

Ecology

It blooms from April to October. This species inhabits woodland clearings and the fringes of forests,

alkaline.[3] It is usually found growing in rocky, large-grained soil, very often calcareous mixed with silicates.[6] The macrocephala variety occurs in matorral habitats on substrates derived from calcarenite and limestone. The tartesiana subspecies occurs in slate-based soils and marl.[15]

Conservation

In 1992 two subspecies, subsp. heldreichii and subsp. princeps, were designated as 'priority species' under Annex II of the

Special Areas of Conservation' -which were to form the backbone of the Natura 2000 network, but only if these areas include one of the number of habitats listed in Annex I of the directive.[16]
Neither subspecies are still recognised.

In 2005 the flora of Andalusia was assessed for the Lista roja de la flora vascular de Andalucía, with two subspecies, subsp. tartesiana and subsp. macrocephala, being included in the list. These two taxa were assessed as 'data deficient', but were included because they have restricted distributions and the authors thought that they might be threatened, or at least impacted, by changes in agriculture.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Centaurea alba". International Plant Names Index. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries and Australian National Botanic Gardens. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Greuter, Werner (2006). Greuter, Werner; von Raab-Straube, E. (eds.). "Details for: Centaurea alba in Compositae (pro parte majore)". Euro+Med Plantbase. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-84-00-10273-9
    .
  4. ^
    Real Jardín Botánico
    . 2 March 2012. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  5. ^ "Centaurea alba". Tropicos. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
  6. ^
    ISSN 0010-0730
    . Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  7. ^
    S2CID 92405872
    .
  8. ^
    hdl:10261/112538
    . Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  9. ^ "Centaurea alba L." Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 2017. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
  10. ^ a b "Centaurea × soriana". International Plant Names Index. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries and Australian National Botanic Gardens. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
  11. ^ "Centaurea alba L." African Plants Database. Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques & South African National Biodiversity Institute. 27 December 2008. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  12. ^ a b c "Centaurea alba L." eflore Maghreb (in French). Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  13. ^ a b "Centaurea alba var. mauritanica Batt". African Plants Database. Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques & South African National Biodiversity Institute. 2012. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  14. ^ "Centaurea". Flore du Maghreb - basé sur la "Nouvelle flore d'Algérie et des régions désertiques méridionales" de Pierre Quézel et S. Santa 1963, version 2.2 (in French). Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques. September 2018. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  15. ^
    ISBN 84-96329-62-3
    .
  16. ^ "Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora". Eur-Lex. Retrieved 24 September 2020.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Centaurea_alba&oldid=1171770727"