Carduncellus cuatrecasasii G. López (Compositae-Cardueae) and a new and peculiar way of fruits dispersión

Abstract

Carduncellus cuatrecasasii G. López is a endemic species of South Iberian Península (Spain): Andalucía (Córdoba, Granada, Jaén and Málaga provinces) and Extremadura (Badajoz province). Considered for a time to be only a variety or subspecies under C. araneosus Boiss. & Reut., is in fact a quite isolated species of Carduncellus showing not only a consistent set of morphologically different characters in comparison with other European ones but also a peculiar and apparently not described mechanism of cypselas dispersion: the persistent setae in the receptacle are very short and weak, the long, rigid and inconsistently deciduous pappus develop an outer series of flexuous reflexed bristles connecting it with the next ones and all the fruits are dispersed together by the wind in the form of a spherical rolling mass, the individual fruits being relaxed occasionally when this mass stick with some obstacle.