Cephalaria leucantha

Cephalaria leucantha
Flowers of Cephalaria leucantha at the Civico Orto Botanico di Trieste
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Dipsacales
Family:	Caprifoliaceae
Genus:	Cephalaria
Species:	C. leucantha
Binomial name
Cephalaria leucantha (L.) Schrad. ex Roem. & Schult
Synonyms[1]
Cephalaria albescens (Willd.) Roem. & Schult. Cephalaria boetica Boiss. Cephalaria leucanthema Roem. & Schult. Cephalaria linearifolia Lange Cerionanthus leucanthus Schott ex Roem. & Schult. Scabiosa leucantha L.

Cephalaria leucantha is a species of flowering plants in the family Caprifoliaceae.[2]

Description

Cephalaria leucantha grows to 90–150 centimetres (35–59 in) in height. This hardy perennial plant has a long stem with divided, fern-like leaves. It produces white or pale lemon flowers from July to November.[3]

Distribution

This species is present in northern Africa and in southern Europe (Albania, former Yugoslavia, Greece, Italy, France, Portugal, and Spain).[4]

History

The species was described as Scabiosa trenta by Belsazar Hacquet 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. It was not until 1893 that the Austrian botanist Anton Kerner von Marilaun determined that Hacquet's species was actually Cephalaria leucantha, which is now extinct in the Julian Alps.[5][6]

References

1. The Plant List: A Working List of All Plant Species, retrieved 15 May 2016
2. NCBI
3. Plant World
4. "Cephalaria leucantha". Germplasm Resources Information Network. Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
5. Kerner, Anton (1893). "Scabiosa Trenta Hacquet". Österreichische Botanische Zeitschrift. 43: 113–117.
6. Matej Župančič; Stanko Flego (2012). "Non ad personam sed ad rem (ali o kačjem pastirju in želvi)". In Flego, Stanko; Rupel, Lidija (eds.). Ludwig Karl Moser (1845–1918) med Dunajem in Trstom. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC. p. 198.

• Tutin, T. G. et al., eds. 1964–1980. Flora europaea.