CARTHAMUS DENTATUS subsp. RUBER

Family:- COMPOSITAE

Common Name:- None

Synonyms:- Kentrophyllum rubrum.

Meaning:- Carthamus. From Hebrew for painted one.

Dentatus (L) Having teeth, with outward-pointing teeth.

Ruber (L) Red.

General description:- Erect, rather rigid annual.

Stems:-

1) 20-80 cm tall. Straw coloured, sparsely glandular-pubescent, arachnoid-

tomentose, usually simple below and ± corymbosely branched above.

Leaves:-

1) Greyish or green.

2) Cauline, amplexicaul, ovate-laneolate, spinose-dentate, acuminate.

Flowers:-

1) Involucre oblong to narrowly ovoid, 12-15 mm in diam.

2) Outer involucral bracts. at least twice as long as the inner, strongly patent or

deflexed, with long spines.

3) Middle and inner phyllaries with a scarious, dentate appendage.

4) Florets pinkish-mauve or pale purplish.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes c. 4 mm. pappus of brownish, ciliate scales up to 3 times as long as

the achene.

Key features:-

1) Middle and inner phyllaries with a scarious, dentate appendage.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Cultivated, fallow and waste ground, roadsides, vineyards, olive groves,

tracksides, 0-1000 m.

Distribution:- Balkans, Anatolia to W Iran. Limited distribution on Crete mainly in

the east.

Flowering time:- May-Sept.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton