SPECIES DESCRIPTION
ONOPORDUM TAURICUM
Family:- COMPOSITAE/Sect. ECHINATA
Common Names:- None
Synonyms:- None
Meaning:- Onopordum (Gr) Ass-fart (its reputed flatulent effect on donkeys).
Tauricum (L) Of the Crimea.
General description:- Stout tall biennial.
Stem:-
1) Up to 200 cm, with multicellular hairs, more or less viscid. Yellowish-brown;
wings up to 15 mm wide, not reticulate-veined, with spines up to 5 mm.
Leaves:-
1) Up to 25 x 10 cm, oblong-lanceolate, sessile, pinnatifid, with 6-8 pairs of remote
lobes, dark green, very sparsely hairy above, more densely so beneath
especially on the veins; lobes triangular, longer than wide, with an apical spine
up to 8 mm.
Flowers:-
1) Capitula 35-45 x 55-70 mm, subglobose.
2) Involucral bracts 4-7 mm wide at base, tapering into a rigid spine up to 4 mm,
smooth, with the midrib slightly raised in the apical 2/3.
3) Bracts:
a) middle usually erecto-patent.
b) outer usually deflexed.
4) Corolla 25-30 mm, purplish-pink.
Fruit:-
1) Achenes 5-6 mm, shiny- or greyish-brown.
2) Pappus 8-10 mm.
Key features:-
1) Capitula 55-70 mm diam.
2) Stem-wings with spines up to 5 mm.
Habitat:- Coastal habitats, roadsides, dry meadows, ruderal habitats. 0-800(-1700)
m.
Distribution:- Greece eastwards to Turkey. - Italy the Balkan Peninsula and
through Anatolia to Crimea and W Syria. Limited distribution across Crete mainl in
the central region.
Flowering time:- Late May to Aug.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton
