Senecio leucanthemifolius, Poiret

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1976, Flora Europaea. Volume 4. Plantaginaceae to Compositae (and Rubiaceae), Cambridge University Press : 203-204

59. S. leucanthemifolius Poiret , Voy. Barb. 2: 238 (1789).

Like 58 but often very fleshy; basal leaves usually obovate, dentate; cauline leaves variously dissected, often coarsely pinnatifid, with entire to shallowly dentate auricles; involucral bracts often black-tipped; supplementary bracts several, up to 2 mm, usually blackish. In = 20. Maritime sands and rocks; rarely inland. W. & C. Mediterranean region, S. Portugal. Al BI Co Ga?Hs ItJuLuSaSi.

Very variable. Robust plants with thick, fleshy, unlobed or only slightly lobed leaves have been called S. crassifolius Willd. , Sp. Pl. 3: 1982 (1803), and contrast very strongly with small, spring-flowering ephemerals with only slightly fleshy leaves. Nevertheless, a series of intermediates seems to connect all the variants.

Variants occur with poorly developed ligules (e.g. S. carolimalyi Horvatic, Biol. Glas. (Zagreb) 8: 37 (1955), described from N.W. Jugoslavia (Kverneri Otoki)), or with small capitula wholly withoutligules (e.g. S. pygmaeus DC. , Prodr. 6: 341 (1838) from Sicilia, Malta and Lampedusa ).

S. rodriguezii Willk. ex Rodr. , Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 3: 36 (1874), a dwarf, fleshy, almost entire-leaved plant from Islas Baléares (Mallorca and Menorca), differs strikingly from 59 in its pale lilacligules. It is nevertheless not clearly distinguishable on any other character, has 2n = 20, and seems best treated as a local variant of 59, typical yellow-flowered plants of which are recorded from Ibiza.