Carthamus lanatus L. Wooly Distaff Thistle

Carthamus lanatus L. - Wooly Distaff Thistle

Scientific Description:

Plant 15−75 cm. Stems brownish to straw-coloured, sparsely to densely villous. Cauline leaves glandular-villous, usually green (rarely greyish-green), 30−60 × 10−16 mm (excl. spines), ovate-acuminate, amplexicaul, margins spiny-pinnatifid. Outer phyllaries 25−45 mm, 1.5-2 × as long as inner, erect to patent or somewhat recurved; median phyllaries gradually acuminate like inner or appendaged as in C. dentatus Andrews. Flowers yellow.

 

Flowering time: May−August.

Habitat: Dry slopes and waste places, fallow fields, s.l.−2290 m.

 

Reference:
Kupicha FK (1975). Carthamus lanatus L., In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 5: 592.

Public Description:

Carthamus lanatus, known as “woolly distaff thistle” or “saffron thistle”, is a native of the Mediterranean Basin. It is an annual herbaceous plant with yellow flowers, and grows up to 75 cm in length. It is a spiny, glandular, woolly plant, which often looks like it is covered in spiderweb due to its fine tangled fibers. It blooms between May and August and is found in dry slopes, waste places and fallow fields.

 

References:

Anonymous (2016). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carthamus_lanatus, Accessed date: 06.01.2016.

Hacıoğlu T B (2012). Carthamus L. In: Güner, A., Aslan, S., Ekim, T., Vural, M. & Babaç, M.T. (eds.), Türkiye Bitkileri Listesi (Damarlı Bitkiler). Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanik Bahçesi ve Flora Araştırmaları Derneği Yayını. İstanbul, pp. 126–127.