Carduus fasciculiflorus, Viv.

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 : 231

48. C. fasciculiflorus Viv. , Fl. Cors., Арр. 1: 6 (1825).

Annual or biennial. Stem glabrous or sparsely hairy; wings palmatetriangular, divided into oblong-lanceolate lobs, each with an apical spine up to 7 mm. Leaves lanceolate or oblong, glabrous, with 8-10 pairs of palmate lobes divided into triangular-acute lobules, each with an apical spine up to 7 mm. Capitula 12-20 x 6-12 mm, subsessile, in dense clusters of (3—)5— 15; involucral bracts closely imbricate, the outer 0-5-1 mm wide and lanceolate, the middle 1-5-2 mm wide and ovate-lanceolate, all more or less contracted into a spine 2-4 mm, with slightly scarious margin, the mid-vein glabrous near the apex; inner bracts about as long as the inner middle, veinless. Corolla 10-12 mm. Achenes 2-3 mm, compressed, rugulose; apical prominence small, shortly stipitate, davate, slightly 5-lobed, mucronate; pappus 12-14 mm. 2« = 22. Scrub and waste places. Corse, Sardegna, Montecristo. Co It Sa.