Prangos ferulacea, known in Italy as common basilisk (basilisco comune) is a perennial herbaceous plant present in the Mediterranean Basin, Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, and the Caucasus.
Herbaceous plant 60–150 cm tall, stem has a diameter of 1-2 cm at the base. Its leaves are glabrous and light green, broadly ovate to ovate-triangular or oblong-elliptic and repeatedly pinnate. Its basal leaves have up to 50-80 cm long petioles, at the base they are divided into 3 lobes, each 4-5 times pinnate. Its terminal lobes are linear, lanceolate or almost filiform, with 1 vein, at the apex they are shortly pointed. The lower stem leaves are shorter-stalked and the uppermost are sessile, much smaller and less dissected, with sheaths enclosing the stem. The complex umbels are about 15 cm in diameter, with 6-18 main rays, at the base with a sheath of linear-lanceolate and membranous leaves. Awns are about 1 cm wide. Its petals are about 1 mm long, obovate or elliptic. The fruits are 10-25 mm long, about 10 mm wide, ovoid to elliptical, slightly laterally flattened. Blooms in May-June and bears fruit in June - August. It is pollinated by insects and propagated by seeds.[1]
The species is distributed in Italy and the island of Sicily, Romania, Bulgaria, the Caucasus, Turkey, Armenia and Iran. In Bulgaria, it is found along the Black Sea coast - Medni Rid and Maslen nos, as well as on, up to about 300 m above sea level. It is an endangered species in Bulgaria, included in the Red Book of Bulgaria and in the . In northern Sicily it grows on limestone in association with endangered fungus Pleurotus nebrodensis.[2]