Abstract

In the first months of 2013, a large group of plants of Centaurea belonging to the section Seridia, initially identified as a morphological variant of C. seridis subsp. sonchifolia, has been found during a naturalistic excursion in the Regional Natural Park of Punta Pizzo—Sant’Andrea Island. Morphological investigations, direct comparisons with species belonging to the same section, both through herbarium’s specimens and in vivo, and punctual bibliographical research indicate that this population belongs to a new species with some similarities with the Euro-Mediterranean C. seridis, C. polyacantha (a species with a distribution comprising the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco), or the North-African C. bimorpha and C. ferox, but is quite different by many characters illustrated in the present work. The new species here described is named C. akroteriensis Gennaio & Q.G. Manni.