Sonchus bulbosus (L.) N. Kilian & Greuter subsp. bulbosus

Spice Fruit Fruit 2 In the field

Family: COMPOSITAE (ASTERACEAE)

Genus: Sonchus

Sinònims: Aetheorhiza bulbosa (L.) Cass. subsp. bulbosa

Catalan common name: Calabruix. Lleganyova.

Spanish common name: Puerro silvestre.

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

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

General distribution (Phytogeography): Mediterranean

IUCN Category: LCLeast concern

Flowering time: JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Life-forms: Hemicryptophyte.

Habitats: Beaches and dunes, sandy soils. Wild olive trees and other sclerophyllous shrublands. Juniperus phoenicea subsp. turbinata forest. Sandy soils.

Characteristics: A yellow-flowered Compositae like many that can be found in the Mediterranean, but it is easy to recognise because it has characteristic red, glandulous hairs on the outside of its capitulum. The leaves are long and hardly divided. It is also a plant that lives on beaches and dunes, and has white, buried tubercules and a network of rhizomes which give off rosettes of leaves on the surface of the sand. It can also be found in dry shrubland occupying a habitat more similar to another subspecies living in the Balearics (subsp. willkommii); the latter can be differentiated by its very small, greatly divided leaves. It flowers during spring.