For the checkered beetle genus, see Pallenis (beetle).

Pallenis is a small genus of flowering plant

Flowering plant

The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...

s in the sunflower family (Asteraceae

Asteraceae

The Asteraceae or Compositae , is an exceedingly large and widespread family of vascular plants. The group has more than 22,750 currently accepted species, spread across 1620 genera and 12 subfamilies...

). The type species is Pallenis spinosa. The name is derived from palea (chaff), referring to the chaffy receptacle.

This is a typical Mediterranean genus, occurring in desert and coastal habitats

Habitat (ecology)

A habitat is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant or other type of organism...

 of Southern Europe, North Africa, the Canary Islands and the Middle East.

The genus consists of annual

Annual plant

An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates, flowers, and dies in a year or season. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed...

 or biennial

Biennial plant

A biennial plant is a flowering plant that takes two years to complete its biological lifecycle. In the first year the plant grows leaves, stems, and roots , then it enters a period of dormancy over the colder months. Usually the stem remains very short and the leaves are low to the ground, forming...

 herbaceous plants with white, sub-silky hairs on the soft stems

Plant stem

A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant. The stem is normally divided into nodes and internodes, the nodes hold buds which grow into one or more leaves, inflorescence , conifer cones, roots, other stems etc. The internodes distance one node from another...

, growing to a height of 20–50 cm. They grow on uncultivated or disturbed land and roadsides. They are hardy, surviving in dry to very dry environments or cold spells.

The small, alternate, entire leaves

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 are elliptic to obovate. They have short petioles at the base of the stem but are sessile in the upper half.

The solitary inflorescence

Inflorescence

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

 grows at the top of the branches. The large, slightly convex receptacle shows numerous, yellowish orange, hermaphrodite disc florets and two whorls of yellow ray florets. They flower from March to July.

The long, villous, involucral bract

Bract

In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis, or cone scale. Bracts are often different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of a different color, shape, or texture...

s end in an apical sharp-pointed spine. The achene

Achene

An achene is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate and indehiscent...

 is glabrous or is covered with short hairs.

The essential oil of Pallenis spinosa consists for the main part of oxygenated sesquiterpenoids.

Pallenis maritima is a protected plant in southern France.

Pallenis hierochuntica (Michon) Greuter (Asteriscus hierochunticus (Michon) Wicklund) is sold under the name rose of Jericho

Rose of Jericho

Anastatica is a monotypic genus with the type species Anastatica hierochuntica. The genus is a member of the family Brassicaceae , in the division Magnoliophyta of the class Magnoliopsida. The plant is a small gray annual herb that rarely grows above high, and bears minute white flowers...

. This plant also grows in the region from North-Africa to Asia. Occasional synonym is Saulcya hierochuntica.

Species

• Pallenis aurea Pomel
• Pallenis × caballeroi Sennen
• Pallenis canescens Viv.
• Pallenis croatica Graebner (synonym of Pallenis spinosa)
• Pallenis hierochuntica
  Pallenis hierochuntica
  Pallenis hierochuntica is a species of Pallenis that is notable for being a resurrection plant....
  
  ( Michon ) Greuter
  Werner Greuter
  Professor Dr. Werner Rodolfo Greuter, in Genova, Italy, as a Swiss national, is a prominent botanist. He is well-known as the chair of the Editorial Committee for the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature - both the previous St Louis Code , and Tokyo Code , but not the current Vienna Code...
  
  
• Pallenis madritensis Sennen
• Pallenis maritima (L.) Greuter
  Werner Greuter
  Professor Dr. Werner Rodolfo Greuter, in Genova, Italy, as a Swiss national, is a prominent botanist. He is well-known as the chair of the Editorial Committee for the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature - both the previous St Louis Code , and Tokyo Code , but not the current Vienna Code...
  
   (formerly Odontospermum maritimum Schultz Bip.)
• Pallenis spinosa
  Pallenis spinosa
  Pallenis spinosa, common names: Spiny Starwort or Spiny Golden Star, is an annual herbaceous plant belonging to the genus Pallenis of the Asteraceae family...
  
  (L.) Cass.
  Alexandre de Cassini
  Count Alexandre Henri Gabriel de Cassini was a French botanist and naturalist, who specialised in the sunflower family ....
  
  
  • Pallenis spinosa
    Pallenis spinosa
    Pallenis spinosa, common names: Spiny Starwort or Spiny Golden Star, is an annual herbaceous plant belonging to the genus Pallenis of the Asteraceae family...
    
    ssp. spinosus
• Pallenis teknensis ( Dobignard & Jacquemoud) Greuter
  Werner Greuter
  Professor Dr. Werner Rodolfo Greuter, in Genova, Italy, as a Swiss national, is a prominent botanist. He is well-known as the chair of the Editorial Committee for the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature - both the previous St Louis Code , and Tokyo Code , but not the current Vienna Code...
  
  & Jury