Carduus australis, L. fil.

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1976, Flora Europaea. Volume 4. Plantaginaceae to Compositae (and Rubiaceae), Cambridge University Press : 231

46. C. australis L. fil. , Suppl. 348 (1781)

( C. marmoratus Boiss. & Heldr. ).

Annual up to 60 cm. Stem more or less arachnoid-hairy; wings up to 8 mm wide, triangular, with a stout apical spine up to 12 mm. Leaves glabrescent above, arachnoid-hairy beneath with multicellular and unicellular hairs, lyrate-pinnatipartite with 2-5 pairs of triangular lobes, each with a stout apical spine up to 30 mm. Capitula 15-20 x 5-10 mm, cylindrical, subsessile and mostly in clusters of 2-5; involucral bracts imbricate, usually suberect at apex, 1 -5-3 mm wide, ovate-lanceolate, more or less contracted into a spiny apex, glabrous or almost so, minutely serrulate but not scarious at the margin, with the mid-vein raised only in the distal |; inner bracts 1| times as long as the inner middle bracts, veinless, with scarious margin. Corolla 10-12 mm. Achenes 4-5 mm, compressed, smooth; apical prominence absent; pappus 10-13 mm. Waste places. C. & E. Mediterranean region. Al Co Gr It Ju Si Tu.