Rhaponticum is a Genus of plants in the Asteraceae

Asteraceae

The Asteraceae or Compositae , is an exceedingly large and widespread family of vascular plants. The group has more than 22,750 currently accepted species, spread across 1620 genera and 12 subfamilies...

 family.

Description

The Rhaponticum species are perennial

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

 herbaceous plant

Herbaceous plant

A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...

s, with simple, rarely branched stem

Stem

-Science:* Plant stem, the above ground structures that have vascular tissue and that support leaves and flowers   Also see similar:**Stipe **Stipe * Stem cell...

. The leaves are simple to pinnatifid. The inflorescence is on the apex of the stem. Fruits are achenes with hairy pappus.

Distribution

The distribution area extends from the Iberian peninsula to the Alps

Alps

The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....

 and the Mediterranean region (including North Africa and the Middle East), the Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

, the Caucasus

Caucasus

The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...

 and Altai up to the central Asia.

Species

See

• Rhaponticum acaule (L.) DC.
• Rhaponticum aulieatense Iljin
• Rhaponticum australe (Gaudich.)
• Rhaponticum berardioides (Batt.)
• Rhaponticum canariense DC.
• Rhaponticum carthamoides (Willd.)
• Rhaponticum coniferum (L.) Greuter
• Rhaponticum cossonianum (Ball) Greuter
• Rhaponticum cynaroides Less.
• Rhaponticum exaltatum (Willk.) Greuter
• Rhaponticum fontqueri (Sauvage) Hidalgo
• Rhaponticoides hajastana (Tzvelev) M.V.Agab. & Greuter
• Rhaponticum heleniifolium
  Rhaponticum heleniifolium
  Rhaponticum heleniifolium is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant of the genus Rhaponticum, belonging to the Asteraceae family.-Description:...
  
  Godr. & Gren.
• Rhaponticoides iconiensis (Hub.-Mor.) M.V.Agab. & Greuter
• Rhaponticum insigne (Boiss.) Wagenitz
• Rhaponticum integrifolium C.Winkl.
• Rhapontikum karatavicum Iljin
• Rhaponticum longifolium (Hoffmanns. & Link) Dittrich
• Rhaponticum lyratum C.Winkl. ex Iljin
• Rhaponticum namanganicum Iljin
• Rhaponticum nanum Lipsky:
• Rhaponticum nitidum Fisch.
• Rhaponticum pulchrum Fisch. & C.A.Meyer,
• Rhaponticum repens  (L.) Hidalgo
• Rhaponticum scariosum
  Rhaponticum scariosum
  Rhaponticum scariosum, common name Giant Scabiosa, is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant of the genus Rhaponticum, belonging to the Asteraceae family.-Description:...
  
  Lam.
• Rhaponticum serratuloides (Georgi) Bobrov
• Rhaponticum uniflorum (L.) DC.