Centaurea melitensis L.

Family: COMPOSITAE (ASTERACEAE)

Genus: Centaurea

Catalan common name: Oriola.

Province distribution: Alacant. Balearic Islands. Barcelona. Castelló. Girona. Lleida. Tarragona. València.

Distribution in the islands: Mallorca. Menorca. Ibiza. Formentera. Cabrera.

General distribution (Phytogeography): Mediterranean

IUCN Category: LCLeast concern

Flowering time: JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Life-forms: Terophyte.

Habitats: Cultivated fields, path and road sides, disturbed zones. Therophytic calicole fields.

Characteristics: A species of the compositae family, annual cycle, and which spends most of the winter and spring as a rosette of leaves that is very difficult to differentiate from other species; the leaves are linear with some hairy lobes. When it is time to flower it starts to develop a very erect stem, covered with linear, hairy leaves; finally it forms the capitula at the top with thorny bracts and yellow flowers. This plant has the peculiarity that it also forms flowers just at the base, practically underground. These flowers allow it to germinate again in the same place where the mother plant had lived and thereby maintain territory which is favourable to it. The top flowers permit it to disperse and colonise new territories. This is an adaptation to dry places. It flowers at the end of spring and in summer. It lives in the clearings of dry garrigues (Mediterranean woodland).