Carduus argemone, Pourret ex Lam.

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 : 227

26. C. argemone Pourret ex Lam. , Encycl. Méth. Bot. 1: 700 (1785).

Stem-wings up to 15 mm wide, semi-hastate or triangular, with an apical spine up to 2(-3) mm. Leaves rather thin, pale green beneath, deeply lobed to pinnatisect, with 8—10(—15) pairs of palmate, dentate or semi-hastate lobes with oblong, subobtuse, spinulose-ciliate lobules, the lobules with an apical spine up to 2(-3) mm; basal leaves cuneate, the petiole up to i as long as the lamina. Capitula 20-40 mm in diameter; involucral bracts linear-subulate to linear-oblong and obtuse, with apical spine 0-2-1 mm; inner bracts acute, slightly wider than the inner middle, densely puberulent distally. Corolla 14-20 mm. Achenes 3-4 mm; apical prominence small, sessile, sinuately 5-lobed. Meadows and shady rocks. • Pyrenees, Corbières, Cordillera Cantábrica ; Jura and W. Alps. Ga He Hs It.