Xeranthemum cylindraceum

Xeranthemum cylindraceum Sm. (Asteraceae), cylindrical immortelle, is a slender erect annual herb native to southern and central Europe, the Balkans, Anatolia, the Caucasus and adjacent western Asia, extending south into the eastern Mediterranean and north to central France and southern Germany. Plants produce one to several wiry, white-cottony stems 20-60 cm tall, branched mainly above. The alternate leaves are linear-lanceolate, 2-7 cm long, sessile, entire and densely white-tomentose beneath, becoming progressively smaller upwards. Solitary terminal heads 15-25 mm across are cylindrical to narrowly bell-shaped at maturity, with several rows of dry, scarious, papery involucral bracts whose innermost row spreads outward as a corona of bright pink, lilac or pale purple petaloid bracts mimicking ray florets; the true florets are all tubular and disc-like. Achenes bear a pappus of five to ten lanceolate awned scales. It grows on dry stony slopes, fallow fields, garrigue and open pinewoods, typically below 1500 m elevation, and is grown as a long-lasting 'everlasting' cut flower.