Onopordum tauricum, Willd.

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 : 246

6. O. tauricum Willd. , Sp. Pl. 3: 1687 (1803).

Plant up to 200 cm, with multicellular hairs, more or less viscid. Stem yellowishbrown; wings up to 15 mm wide, not reticulate-veined, with spines up to 5 mm. Leaves 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 veins; lobes triangular, longer than wide, with an apical spine up to 8 mm. Capitula 35-45 x 55-70 mm, subglobose; 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 |; middle bracts usually erecto-patent, the outer usually deflexed. Corolla 25-30 mm, purplish-pink. Achenes 5-6 mm, shiny- or greyishbrown; pappus 8-10 mm. S.E. Europe. Bu Cr Gr Rm Rs (K) Tu [Ga It].