CARTHAMUS CAERULEUS

Family:- COMPOSITAE

Common Name:- Blue thistle, Carduncellus

Synonyms:- Carduncellus caeruleus, Carthamodes coeruleum,

Kentrophyllum coeruleum, Lamottea caerulea, Onobroma caeruleum.

Meaning:- Carthamus. From Hebrew for painted one.

Caeruleus (L) Dark sky-blue.

General description:- A medium, hairy perennial.

Stem:-

1) (15-)30-60 cm, simple, rarely branched, with variable lanate-arachnoid

indumentum, sometimes glabrescent.

Leaves:-

1) Basal and cauline, shiny, simple, dentate, or pinnatisect to lyrate with 6-10 pairs

of lobes or teeth, the margin and apex spiny.

2) Upper cauline,ovate-lanceolate.

Flowers:-

1) Capitula, solitary, 20-30 mm, surrounded by leaf-like outer flower-bracts.

2) Involucral bracts, with short glands; more or less arachnoid-hairy.

3) Inner flower-bracts often shorter, with a membranous, rounded appendage.

4) Florets all tubular, deeply 5-lobed.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes, c. 6 mm, more or less obpyramidal, inconspicuously angled, narrowed

from the middle to the base, rugose towards the apex.

2) Pappus-scales, ciliate, whitish, 1½-2 times as long as the achene, free.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Dry grassland, fallow fields, road embankments, olive groves. 0-600 m.

Distribution:- Scattered in coastal areas of west Greece. Mainly C & W

Mediterranean eastward to Karpathos. Limited distribution on Crete.

Flowering time:- Late April to early June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton