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This looks at first glance like shiny pine cones sprouting from ankle-high plants. The Leuzea conifera is a perennial, related (it appears) to thistles. Fine wooly hairs cover the stems and the underside of the leaves.
Flowers.
May-Aug.
Size.
5-30 cm (low-short)
Flower Blossom.
50 mm. Globular (as in our photos), brownish-purple, about 50 mm (2in) long. When they flower, the bracts open at the top, exposing fine white hairs.
Leaves.
Up to 8 cm long, narrowly lobed, directly from the stem (unbranched).
Habitat.
Garrigue, open pine woodland, dry rocky or stony ground, poor grassland. We found these by a remote 14th-c chapel north of Grambois.
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