Iphiona mucronata (Forssk.) Asch. & Schweinf.
Ara. (Egipto): Dafeera.
Shrub, spiny, evergreen, hermaphrodite, up to 60(80) cm in height, intricately branched, glabrous or with some sessile or shortly pedicellate glands in young stems. Leaves alternate, up to 2 cm long, rigid, subulate, spiny, entire or pinnatipartite, with 2-6 spiny lobes in the lower half; the upper leaves entire. Capitula pedunculate, peduncles with some short bracts, solitary or more frequently grouped in lax corymbs. Involucre from cylindrical to obconic, with several rows of imbricated bracts, glabrous, with a central green longitudinal band and scarious margins, mucronate; outer bracts ovate; middle and inner bracts obovate-oblong or narrowly oblong. Flowers all in disc florets and hermaphrodite, yellow. Achenes 2-2.5 mm, oblongish, with 8-10 longitudinal ribs, hirsute, with brownish pappus formed by several rows of scabrid setae, 2 or more times longer than the achene; outer setae gradually shorter than inner ones.
Flowering:
March to September.
Fruiting:
April to October.
Habitat:
Wadis in rocky deserts, particularly in shadowy areas.
Distribution:
Endemic to the Middle East (Arabian Peninsula, Jordan, Israel, Palestine) and Egypt, where it grows in desert areas N of the country, including the Sinai Peninsula.
Observations:
A similar species but smaller in size [up to 50(60) cm] relatively frequent in desert areas is I. scabra DC. [Ara. (Egypt): Daffret el-homar]. It is more widely distributed than I. mucronata (NE Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Jordan, Israel and Palestine) and it occupies a larger area in Egypt, where it is found always in desert areas of the E of the country, from the Nile Valley to the Red Sea and from the Sinai Peninsula to Sudan. It differs from I. mucronata especially because it is a densely hairy-glandular and viscous plant, with leaves usually with revolute margins, more rigid and spiky, with only 1-3 spiny divisions only at the base, and with capitula sessile or shortly pedunculate, with more widely scarious bracts, with only the midrib green, and more clearly mucronate or cuspidate.
Conservation status:
Rare species but with relatively wide distribution areas. Currently, they have not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
