Carthamus tinctorius, L.

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 : 302

2. C. tinctorius L. , Sp. Pl. 830 (1753).

Subglabrous annual. Cauline leaves undivided or rarely sinuate to pinnatifid, ovate to lanceolate-ovate, spinose-dentate or entire. Capitula broadly ovoid to conical-ovoid. Inner involucral bracts oblong-lanceolate, entire. Corolla yellow, orange or reddish; filaments subglabrous. Achenes obpyramidal, more or less smooth, shiny, white. Pappus absent or rarely the inner achenes with short narrow scales. 2zi = 24. Formerly cultivated in a large part of Europe for its red and yellow flower-pigments used in dyeing', nowadays cultivated on a smaller scale in parts of S. & C. Europe, mainly for the oil derived from the achenes, and occasionally naturalized. [Au Cz?Ga?Ge?Gr Hs It Ju Lu Rm.] (W. Asia.)

C. gypsicola Iljin, Bull. Jard. Bot. URSS 30: 357 (1932), a species of W.C. Asia with globose capitula, numerous soft, yellowish spines crowded near the base of the outer involucral bracts, yellow corolla, shiny, inconspicuously angled, white or mottled achenes, and pappus absent or reduced to short scales, may also occur in the European part of W. Kazakhstan.