Carduus carlinifolius, 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 : 228

27. C. carlinifolius Lam. , Encycl. Méth. Bot. 1: 700 (1785).

Stem up to 50 cm, usually corymbosely branched above; wings up to 8 mm wide, palmate, with an apical spine up to 10 mm. Leaves with 6-10 pairs of 3-lobulate lobes, each lobule with an apical spine up to 10 mm, the central lobule the largest. Capitula 18-25 mm in diameter; peduncle up to 15 cm and 1 -5 mm in diameter; involucral bracts 1-1-5 mm wide, linear, subacute, more or less contracted into a spine up to 5 mm; inner bracts li -l | times as long as and twice as wide as the inner middle. Corolla 16-20 mm. Achenes 4-5 mm, swollen, smooth; apical prominence small, sessile, 5-lobed; pappus 13-16 mm. 2л = 22. • Mountains of N.E. Spain, Pyrenees, Alps, Appennini. Ga He Hs It.

27 seems to hybridize with 12 in the W. and C. Alps, and with 18(b) in the C. Alps and Appennini.