Caucalis platycarpos, L.

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1981, Flora Europaea. Volume 2. Rosaceae to Umbelliferae, Cambridge University Press : 372

1. C. platycarpos L. , Sp. Pl. 241 (1753)

(C. daucoides L. (1767) , non L. (1753), C. lappula Grande ).

Annual; stems up to 40 cm, erect, branched, slightly setose or pubescent. Leaf-segments pinnately divided into oblong or lanceolate lobes, almost glabrous. Rays 2-5. Bracts absent, rarely 1-2; bracteoles linearlanceolate. Petals c. 2 mm, white or pink. Fruit 6 -1 3x 5 mm; secondary ridges of mericarps with 1 row of aculeate spines as long as the width of the mericarp. 2/ j = 20. Most o f Europe except the north. Al Au Bu Co Cz Ga Ge G r He Hs Hu It Ju Lu Po Rm Rs (C, W, K, E) Tu.

C. bischoffii Kos.-Pol. , Bull. Soc. Nat. Moscou nov. ser., 29: 153 (1916) (C. muricata Bischoff , non Crantz) is the name applied to a distinctive variant which occurs mainly in the eastern part of the range of 1 and apparently replaces it in Krym. In this the spines on the secondary ridges of the mericarps are 1 mm (much shorter than the width of the mericarps) and widened at the base. It is variously treated as a species or as a subspecies or variety of 1 and its status is not clear.