Genus composed of about 870 species, distributed throughout southern Africa and, to a lesser extent, through the rest of Africa and the western Palaearctic. In North Africa it is represented by 10 species, in the more humid places of the Mediterranean mountains; Among them, 8 are considered \u00b1 shrubby. The other 2 species of the genus in North Africa, smaller and scarcer, are:<\/p>\n
E. numidica <\/strong>(Maire) Romo & Boratynski (E. cinerea <\/em>L. var. numidica<\/em> Maire), 15-40 cm in height, characterised by pink or purple flowers, without an involucre of basal bracteoles, anthers with appendages and glabrous ovary. Traditionally considered as a variety of E. cinerea<\/em>, it has recently been separated at a specific level by characters as its shorter peduncles (up to 2 mm), longer bracts (up to 2 mm) and smaller flowers, almost half, of (3.5)4-5 mm long. It is endemic to the cork oak forests on the summit of the Koudiat Tella and the Jebel Koursi (200-300 m altitude), in the small Kabylia (NE of Algeria).<\/p>\n E. sicula<\/strong> Guss. (incl. subsp. cyrenaica<\/em> Brullo & Furnari), 20-50 cm in height, characterised by pubescent branchlets, leaves and flowers; inflorescence in terminal umbels of 4-6 flowers, anthers without appendages; distributed in the eastern Mediterranean area, Sicily, Cyprus, Anatolia, Lebanon and, in North Africa in NE of Libya (Akhdar Massif).<\/p>\n E. numidica<\/em> and E. sicula<\/em> are very rare in North Africa. Currently, they have not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-11266","genus","type-genus","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n