Carduus corymbosus, Ten.

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 : 230

40. C. corymbosus Ten. , FI. Nap. 1, Prodr. -. 48 (1811).

Annual up to 60 cm. Stem arachnoid-hairy; wings up to 4 mm wide, palmate, with an apical spine up to 2 mm. Leaves oblanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, glabrescent above, densely lanate beneath with sinuate, mostly unicellular hairs, with 6-8 pairs of palmate lobes with triangular-acute lobules, each with an apical spine up to 3 mm. Capitula 15-25 x 10-15 mm, oblong; peduncles up to 15 cm and 1 mm in diameter; involucral bracts 0-5-1 mm wide, imbricate though distally slightly squarrose, linear-lanceolate, nearly glabrous, with cibate margins, the mid-vein raised in the distal i; inner bracts 1| times as long as the inner middle, contracted at the scarious apex, faintly 1 -veined in the distal Corolla 15-20 mm. Achenes 4-5 mm, compressed, smooth; apical prominence small, shortly stipitate, 5-lobed; pappus 13-17 mm. Cultivated fields and roadsides. C. & S. Italy, Sicilia, Sardegna. It Sa Si.