Carduus myriacanthus, Salzm. ex DC.

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

36. C. myriacanthus Salzm. ex DC. , Prodr. 6: 624 (1838)

( C. baeticus Boiss. & Reuter ).

Annual up to 30 cm. Stem arachnoidhairy, usually simple; wings up to 2 mm wide, narrow, with numerous slender spines up to 3 mm. Leaves oblanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, glabrescent above, greyish-arachnoid-hairy and with straight unicellular hairs beneath, with 10-12 pairs of ovate-oblong lobes, each with an apical spine up to 1 - 5 mm. Capitula 20-25 x 15-25 mm, campanulate, sessile, solitary on winged branches, or sometimes in clusters of 3; involucral bracts closely imbricate, the outer and middle 0-75-1 mm wide, narrowly and faintly scarious, more or less arachnoid-hairy, with the mid-vein raised in the distal |; inner bracts 1| times as long as the inner middle, veinless, scarious on the margin and irregularly serrulate. Corolla 14-17 mm. Achenes 4-5 mm, compressed, smooth; apical prominence sessile, 5-lobed; pappus 14-16 mm. Maritime sands. S. W. Spain (near Cadiz). Hs. (N. Africa.)

This species closely resembles 43 but is easily distinguished by the larger, campanulate and usually solitary capitulum with closely imbricate bracts and larger corolla.