Carduus candicans, Waldst. & Kit.

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 : 228

28. C. candicans Waldst. & Kit. , Pl. Rar. Hung. 1: 85 (1801 — 1802).

Biennial up to 110 cm. Stem arachnoid-hairy; wings up to 15 mm wide, triangular, lobulate on the upper margin, each lobule with an apical spine up to 3 mm. Leaves oblanceolate or lanceolate, glabrescent above, white-tomentose beneath with sinuate, unicellular hairs, with broadly triangular lobes which are usually lobulate on the upper margin, each lobe with an apical spine up to 3 mm. Capitula 20-30 x 15-20 mm, subglobose; peduncle up to 15 cm and 2 mm in diameter; involucral bracts 1-1-5 mm wide, imbricate, but the outer usually patent, linearsubulate, the outer gradually tapering into a spine c. 1 mm, the middle usually contracted into a spine c. 0- 5 mm, more or less arachnoid-hairy, the mid-vein raised for only its distal |- f; inner bracts slightly longer than the middle bracts, obscurely 1-veined, abruptly narrowed above the middle, minutely verruculose, acuminate, with an apical spine 0- 5 mm. Corolla 17-20 mm.

Achenes 3-4 mm, swollen, nearly smooth; apical prominence sessile, subglobose, 5-lobed; pappus 13-16 mm. Meadows and rocky slopes. 9 Balkan peninsula’, C. & W. Romania. Al Bu Gr Ju Rm Tu.