Centaurea ferulacea

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1976, Flora Europaea. Volume 4. Plantaginaceae to Compositae (and Rubiaceae), Cambridge University Press : 289-290

169. C. ferulacea U. Martelli , Nuovo Gior. Bot. Ital. nov. ser., 3: 370 (1896).

Perennial. Stems 5-30 cm, the base covered with withered leaf-bases, sparingly corymbosely branched and almost leafless above. Leaves shiny, tomentose when young, glabrescent; lower in a basal rosette, with a short, reddish-brown-lanate petiole, the lamina more or less obovate, pectinate-pinnatisect, the segments numerous, setiform, acute, with cartilaginous apex;

upper few, remote, small; uppermost sessile at the base of branches, small. Capitula solitary. Involucre 18-20 mm in diameter, globose; appendages up to 10 mm wide, covering bracts, orbicular, hyaline, white, with an ovate, blackish-brown central spot, lacerate, denticulate, the apex with short mucro. Florets purple. Pappus as long as or somewhat longer than achene. 2«= 18. Calcareous rocks. • E. Sardegna (Baunei). Sa.