Family |
Asteraceae
Carduus argentatus
L.
Carduus argentatus L.
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, Pl. CCLX nº 2; 1983)
Life-form & habit: Annual, arachnoid-canescens plant; stems slender, branched from base or mid-height, 30–50 cm tall, with very narrow, lobed-spiny wings.
Leaves: Thin, nearly glabrous above, canescent below, pinnatifid into ovate, toothed-spiny lobes.
Inflorescence & flowers: Terminal heads solitary on long peduncles, sometimes accompanied by reduced lateral subsessile heads (or multiple terminal flowers in var. polycephalus). Heads oblong, up to 1 cm in diameter.
Involucre: Bracts narrowly lanceolate-linear, minutely scabrid-puberulent; outer bracts shorter, inner ones longer, scarious, all acute to acuminate, not spiny.
Corolla: Purple, exceeding the involucre.
Fruit: Achenes sticky, with a small, turbinate, shortly stipitate appendage.
Phenology: Flowers from April to May.
Habitat & elevation: Roadsides and rocky ground.
Lebanese distribution: Ct. 3 km N of Tyre, Beirut, Hazmiyé, Qalmoun, Maloué, Selftanié, Nahr el-Kelb; Mi. ‘Abey, Ghazir, under Antoura, Bhamdoun, Terbol, Darb es-Sim, ‘Araya, ‘Asfouriyé; Mm. Valley of Hadchit, Bcharré, Feitroun, Maghdouché, plain of Akkar; Met. Ksara.
Syrian distribution: S. Mi. south of Safita; Haur. Mass‘adi; JD. Soueida, Qanouat; Sy. Homs, Rastane.
Native range: Cyprus, Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Iraq