Thapsia garganica L.

Spice Fruit detail Flower Fruit Leaves

Family: UMBELLIFERAE (APIACEAE)

Genus: Thapsia

Catalan common name: Èdril. Tàpsia.

Province distribution: Balearic Islands.

Distribution in the islands: Ibiza. Formentera.

General distribution (Phytogeography): South Mediterranean

IUCN Category: LCLeast concern

Flowering time: JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Life-forms: Hemicryptophyte.

Habitats: Cultivated fields, path and road sides, disturbed zones. Pine wood and shrubland with rosemary and thyme garigue. Forests and garriques. Uncultivated fields.

Characteristics: This is one of the more charactersitic species of the Pituisses, as it is not found in the other islands, and frequents the rural countryside of these islands. The leaves have fairly large lineal divisions, which wither at flowering, like those of the ferula plant. The umbelles have generally globate in form and are yellow in colour; the entire inflourensce can reach over a metre in height, making it quite visble in the countryside. The fruit has two characteristic membranous wings. In Majorca and Minorca can be found Thapsia gymnesica, an endemic species of these islands. Flowers at the end of spring.