Prickly parsnip (Echinophora spinosa)
Description
It is a perennial herbaceous plant that grows on sandy soil, typically on the coastal dunes (psammophilous vegetation) which thanks to its rhizome necessary for traces of humidity, remains firmly clinging to the soil in which it is immersed; meandering and up to one meter long, this presents transverse annulatures with terminal grayish scales. The species, semisucculenta, has peculiarities common to other plants that proliferate in the marine environment, able to withstand salinity and salty winds, and able to draw nourishment from the organic compounds deposited on the beaches by the tides. Characterized by the aerial part that dies in winter, consists of drums robust, grooved, much branched, pubescent, grayish-green, which rise up to 60-70 cm. The leaves evolved to better withstand the hostile environment, end at the apex with a stiff spine and present themselves as sparse and rigid, deeply divided, with lobed trigons, carenated below, furrowed above. The anthesis covers a period from June to September, with the inflorescences placed at the top of the stem gathered in an umbrella, at 6-10 rays, consisting of a central flower, hermaphrodite, surrounded by male flowers, all of a minimal size, white or streaked with red, enveloped in an envelope of stiff, spiny lanceolate bracts. Each reproductive system consists of an inferior ovary formed by five free petals, which, once fertilized, transforms into a dry fruit of an achene and ovoid, with persistent erect styles. The Echinophora spinosa like others that constitute the vegetative association called Ammofileto, is also fundamental for the consolidation of the substrate of the first true dune band
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum:
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Class: Magnoliopsida
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Order: Apiales
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Family: Apiaceae
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Genus: Echinophora
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