See text Lomelosia is a genus of flowering plant in the family Caprifoliaceae and the subfamily of Dipsacoideae.

[5] It was included in Scabiosa L. for quite a long time (e.g. Jasiewicz 1976),[6] Earlier researchers had considered that the annual species of Scabiosa to be derived within Lomelosia and hypothesized that this was responsible for the successful colonization of the (mostly) Eastern Mediterranean, (Ehrendorfer, 1965a;[7] and Verlaque, 1986b.

[15] Soják in 1987, also transferred several species of Scabiosa taxa found in Asia, to the Lomelosia genus.

[18] Molecular data demonstrated that Lomelosia (and Pycnocomon) form a clade distinct from Scabiosa (and Sixalix) (De Castro & Caputo 1997-1998,[19] Further carpological (seed studies) and palynological studies by Mayer & Ehrendorf in 1999,[20] have confirmed that Lomelosia was a separate genus from Scabiosa, which has been further substantiated by later data from molecular phylogenetics (Caputo & al. 2004;[21] and Avino & al.

[22] In 2009, the DNA clade of Scabioseae, consisting of Pterocephalus s.str., Sixalix, Scabiosa, Lomelosia, and Pycnocomon was established.

[23] Lomelosia can be distinguished from the other related genera by the presence of eight pits on the epicalyx tube (De Castro & Caputo 2001).

They are entire or pinnatifid, receptacle at first hemispherical and then conical or cylindrical (in shape), hairy, with herbaceous-scarious bracteoles.

The secondary involucre is homomorphous, sessile, without basal elasome, shaped like a cylindrical tube, with no apparent nerves or ribs and is densely hirsute.

It has a campanulate (bell-shaped) crown, which is scarious (dry and membranous) and hyaline (translucent), with ± scalloped edge.

[28] They are generally have involucral bracts not connate (fused to another organ), entire and radiant, the epicalyx is cylindrical and the corona can be large.

[30] Lomelosia is described as an Old World genus and it is distributed from the Mediterranean region to Central Asia.

[2][29] It is found in the European countries (and regions) of Albania, the Balearic Islands, Bulgaria, Cyprus, East Aegean Islands, France, Greece, Italy,[31] Crete,[32] Portugal, Romania, Sardinia, Sicily, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine and Yugoslavia.

In the Middle East,[34] within Afghanistan, Iran,[29] Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia,[35] and Turkey.

In central Asia within Kazakhstan, Kirghistan, North Caucasus, Tajikistan, Transcaucasus, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and West Himalaya.

For example, Lomelosia cyprica is found on dry slopes in garigue (low scrubland) and open pine forests at altitudes of 150 and 1,200 m (490 and 3,940 ft) above sea level.

P.Caputo & Del Guacchio is found in deserts of Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Pakistan and Lomelosia schimperiana (Boiss.

& Buhse) P. Caputo & Del Guacchio is found in open environments in Iran.

[26] The flowers of Lomelosia are insect pollinated, mainly by bees and bumblebees, as the plants give them a reward of nectar and pollen.

[27] Other insects are occasional visitors, such as long-tongues hoverflies (Syrphidae),[38] moths (Proctor et al. 1996),[39] Lepidoptera (such as Lycaenidae) and Diptera) (Muller 1873,[40]).

[27] Lomelosia hymettia is considered as a medicinal plant (Grigoriadou et al., 2019),[41] with antimicrobial properties (Christopoulou et al., 2008).

[45] Successful propagation in various species of Lomelosia has been reported both via seed growing and by vegetative methods.

[46] In-vitro propagation has also been successfully employed for Lomelosia argentea (L.) Greuter & Burdet (Panayotova et al., 2008).