Launaea arborescens

Appearance

It is a woody-based shrub, dense and intricate, very branched in a zigzag shape (with angles of 80-100º), laticiferous, with an unpleasant smell and spiny appearance. It measures 50-100 cm, being able to reach 150 cm in height and has robust roots, of deep vertical reach but also of lateral extension. The leaves, usually somewhat succulent, in rosette or concentrated at the base of the branch buds, are more or less linear, 1 to 5 mm wide by 1-8 cm long, whole or somewhat serrated and even pinnatifid, more or less embracing and decurrent and early expiring. Each bud holds a cylindrical to conical 7-15 mm high chapter with imbricated external bracts and with scarious margins; the internal ones gradually longer and lanceolate. They surround a receptacle with 7-19 ligules with the corolla limbus of 5-8 by 2-3 mm and the pentadented apex, yellow with the underside often underlined of reddish. The somewhat dimorphic cipselas, 2.5-5 by 0.7-1.3mm, are prismatic, all with 5 main ribs, accompanied by 2 secondary ribs, with tuberculated transverse wrinkles; the interiors closely cuneate and light brown, the peripherals somewhat curved and compressed, thicker and dark brown. They are crowned by a 5-8 mm long, somewhat dimorphic, vilane of numerous finer mushrooms from the center to the outside

Distribution

The species occurs in Spain, the Canary Islands, Algeria, Morocco, and Cape Verde.

Habitat

Its preferred habitat is that of scrubland, more or less altered. Tolerates salinity moderately.

Predators

It suffers pressure from herbivorism by goats and sheep, when young.