Jurinea is a genus of roughly 250 species of perennial herbs (occasionally shrublets) in the daisy family Asteraceae, order Asterales. It was first described by the French botanist Cassini in 1821 and ranges across Europe, Central and southwestern Asia, and northwestern Africa, with ten species recorded in China.
Plants are typically perennial herbs with leaves that range from undivided to deeply pinnatisect. The flower heads (capitula) may be solitary or grouped into a flat-topped (corymbiform) arrangement. The involucre — the cup of bracts enclosing the head — varies from bowl-shaped to cylindric, with herbaceous or leathery phyllaries that may lie flat or reflex outward. Florets are red to purple and bear sessile glands. The achenes are 3–4-angled, glabrous or glandular, and sometimes covered with minute spiny tubercles; the apex forms a characteristic crown. The pappus (feathery crown that aids seed dispersal) consists of several rows of white, unequal bristles ranging from rough (scabrid) to fully plumose, inserted on a prominent conical cupule that may persist or fall away as a unit.
The closely related genus Pilostemon Iljin, distinguished solely by its hairy anther connectives, is treated as a synonym of Jurinea in the Flora of China, as all other putative diagnostic characters fall within the variation found across Jurinea sections.
Etymology
The genus name Jurinea honours the Swiss botanist Andrés Jurine (1780–1804); it was formally established by Henri Cassini in 1821. The Chinese name 苓菊属 (líng jú shǔ) is used in the Flora of China.
Distribution
Jurinea occurs across northwestern Africa, Europe, and Central and southwestern Asia, extending east through the Caucasus, Iran, and Central Asia to China, where ten species are recorded (one endemic). The genus is characteristic of dry, open habitats across these regions.
Taxonomy Notes
Jurinea was established by Cassini (1821) in the tribe Cardueae (thistles and allies) of Asteraceae. The genus Pilostemon Iljin, defined by pilose anther connectives, is subsumed within Jurinea in modern treatments because no other reliable diagnostic character separates it; this synonymy is followed in the Flora of China. With approximately 250 species it is one of the larger genera in the subtribe Carduinae.
