Centaurea mariolensis

Appearance

Multicaule grass, except in the involucral bracts, but scabrous, with prostrate stems and little indument.
Basal leaves petiolate, narrowly lanceolate or pinnate with the terminal terminal lobe. Sessile, non-decurrent, cauline seals.
Flowers in terminal radiate, solitary capitula, with ovoid involucre of greenish overlapping involucral bracts with marked longitudinal nerves; stockings with apical appendage provided with lateral fimbriae of 1.5-2 mm with a terminal spine longer than the lateral fimbriae, triangular, erect, dark in color. Corolla pink or white. It blooms between May and July.

Distribution

Endemic from Spain, found in the mountains of Alicante, mainly in Sierra de Mariola.

Habitat

This woody bush is an Ibero-Levantine endemism (Alcoyan-Dianic) that grows in bushes, rocky outcrops and dry perennial grasslands on limestone soils in the mountains north of Alicante.