Warionia

Warionia saharae

''Warionia'' is a genus in the dandelion tribe within the daisy family. The only known species is ''Warionia saharae'', an endemic of Algeria and Morocco, and it is locally known in the Berber language as afessas, abessas or tazart n-îfiss. It is an aromatic, thistle-like shrub of ½–2 m high, that contains a white latex, and has fleshy, pinnately divided, wavy leaves. It is not thorny or prickly. The aggregate flower heads contain yellow disk florets. It flowers from April till June. Because ''Warionia'' is deviant in many respects from any other Asteraceae, different scholars have placed it hesitantly in the Cardueae, Gundelieae, Mutisieae, but now genetic analysis positions it as the sister group to all other Cichorieae.
Warionia saharae Warionia saharae is a perennial endmic N Africa. This picture was taken in Morocco, Anti-Atlas, w of Tafraut, 1300m Geotagged,Morocco,Spring,Warionia,Warionia saharae

Appearance

''Wariona'' is an aromatic shrub, usually between ½–2 m, occasionally only 15 cm or up to 3 m high, that has a network of latex-carrying canals throughout the plant with sticky, white, milky latex. It also has oil canals. It carries glandular hairs that consist of two parallel series of a few cells on top of each other . It has thirty-four chromosomes .

Naming

The genus name ''Warionia'' is named in honor of Adrien Warion , a French military physician and botanist who made extensive collections while stationed in North Africa. The specific epithet ''saharae'' refers to the Sahara desert, in a small part of which this plant naturally occurs.

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Taxonomy
KingdomPlantae
DivisionAngiosperms
ClassEudicots
OrderAsterales
FamilyAsteraceae
GenusWarionia
Species
Photographed in
Morocco