Rhaponticoides nuriae has been found well-established around crops (especially cereals and fallow fields) in Sidi Kacem Province exclusively on clay soil .
Rhaponticoides nuriae is easily distinguished by its entire leaves, fully leafy glabrous stem, and distinct appendages with very wide scarious margins. It is quite different from the two species of the genus reported from Morocco (Rhaponticoides africana (Lam.) M.V. Agab. & Greuter and Rhaponticoides eriosiphon (Emb. & Maire) M.V. Agab. & Greuter) by its longer achenes and peculiar appendages that resemble Centaurea margaritacea aggr.
The phylogeny demonstrate that the new species cannot be reduced to any of the species of the genus and may represent an early offspring of the genus. Further analyses are needed to confirm this isolated position, but the independence of the Moroccan finding is supported by molecular evidence.
Réf. : Homrani B.A. & Susanna A. 2024 Rhaponticoides nuriae(Asteraceae), a stunning new species from Morocco Phytotaxa 659 (1): 097–104.
Posted by Jean-Paul Peltier.