Flora-Fauna

Carthamus persicus Desf. ex Willd.

(Sp. Pl., ed. 4. 3: 1707, 1803; = C. armenus Willd.; C. flavescens auct. non Willd.; Onobroma persicum DC.; Kentrophyllum aureum Boiss.; Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 496; Pl. CCCIX nº 1; 1966)

• Life-form & habit: Annual, glabrous except for a few glandular granulations at the top of stems and branches; 50–100 cm tall.
• Leaves: Lower cauline leaves sessile, with 3–5 pairs of lateral sinuosities producing short acute lobes, bearing a few glands beneath. Upper leaves sessile, subamplexicaul, horizontal, flat or slightly canaliculate, 4–12 mm wide, often yellowish-green, spinose, doubly denticulate; spines 4–6 mm, whitish or yellowish. Surfaces glabrous above, sometimes with scattered hairs or glands beneath.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Capitula more or less loose, c. 15 mm long. Outer involucral bracts rarely longer than the flowers, sometimes up to 1.5–2× as long; acuminate, 2–4 cm × 3–5 mm, spreading or erect, spinose-dentate, slightly to moderately pubescent. Intermediate bracts linear-lanceolate with parallel nerves. Florets bright yellow, sometimes tinged reddish; limb 6–7 mm.
• Fruit: Achenes pyramidal, smooth, shiny, 4.5–5 mm long and wide. Pappus of central achenes yellowish or violet, with scales 2 mm and bristles 7–9 mm.
• Phenology: Flowers May–July.
• Habitat & elevation: Fields and abandoned lands.
• Lebanese distribution: Beqaa (east of Zahlé, Hammara, Mejdel-‘Anjar, Baalbeck plain), Zahlé to Baalbeck, Qaraoun, Chtaura.
• Syrian distribution: Zebdani, Yabroud, north of Menbij, Damascus plain (Doummar, Dimas, Hijjané, ‘Adra, Sahl-es-Sahra), Soueida, Reddé.
• Native range: Iran, Iraq, Lebanon–Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Turkey (POWO).

⚠️ Diagnostic note: Distinguished from C. oxyacanthus by its roughened central achenes with a pappus (versus smooth, pappus-less in C. oxyacanthus), and from C. tinctorius by its pubescent filaments and narrower involucral bracts .