Rock phagnalon
Phagnalon rupestre
Family · Asteraceae · Harmless
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The grey subshrub growing in rock cracks and walls, bearing dry straw-coloured heads whose bracts crackle between the fingers. It served as tinder for lighting fires.
Uplands · Walls and rocks · Scrubland · Roadsides and waste ground
Also known asrupestral phagnalon
How to tell it
A plant woody at the base, much branched, entirely covered in greyish white felt. Narrow leaves with a wavy rolled margin. Heads solitary or in small groups atop long stalks, ringed by dry, golden brown, shiny bracts, very characteristic.
What it is confused with
Wall phagnalon
Phagnalon saxatile
They are very close. On this one the heads are nearly always solitary and the outer bracts are broad and spreading; on wall phagnalon the bracts are narrow and tight. Neither carries risk.
Open sheet →What it is for
The dry parts were used as tinder throughout the Mediterranean basin, which is where the Spanish name yesquera comes from. No food use. It is one of the few plants found on a vertical limestone wall.