Shrubby hare's ear
Bupleurum fruticescens
Family · Apiaceae · Harmless
The umbellifer nobody recognises as one: instead of the family's divided leaves it has entire, narrow, needle-stiff leaves, and it is woody. An exception worth remembering.
Scrubland · Uplands · Roadsides and waste ground
Also known asshrubby thorow-wax
How to tell it
A woody cushion half a metre tall, with entire, narrow, curved, blue-green leaves showing clear parallel veins. Small umbels of yellow-green flowers in late summer. Little scent, unlike most of the family. Range: mainly a Spanish plant, practically absent from Portugal.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
No food use
It counts as a field lesson: it shows that a divided leaf does not define the umbellifer family, and that the umbel is what decides.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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