Flora of North America species comparison

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Carthamus creticus

distaff thistle, smooth distaff thistle
Habit Plants 40–100 cm, herbage ± sparsely hairy.
Stems

rigidly erect, openly branched above, stramineous.
Leaves

basal and cauline;

basal often absent at anthesis, petioles winged, blades pinnately 1–2-divided into linear or lanceolate spine-tipped lobes, cauline spreading or recurved, lanceolate to ovate, rigid, clasping, margins spiny-lobed, spine-tipped.
Involucres

ovoid, 20–25 mm, very thinly cobwebby or becoming glabrous.
Corollas

pale yellow, 25–35 mm, throats abruptly expanded;

anthers white with purple stripes;

pollen white.
Outer phyllaries

ascending or ± spreading, 35–55 mm, usually 2 times as long as inner, terminal appendages spreading to ascending, spiny-lobed, prominently spine-tipped.
Cypselae

brown, 4–6 mm, outer roughened;

pappus scales 1–10 mm.
2n

= 64.

Carthamus creticus
Phenology Flowering summer (Jun–Aug).
Habitat Fields, roadsides
Elevation 0–500 m (0–1600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; NV; OR; SC; BC; Europe [Introduced in North America]
Discussion

Carthamus creticus has been reported for British Columbia in all recent floras, as C. lanatus subsp. baeticus. It is native to the Mediterranean region.

Apparently an allohexaploid derived by hybridization between Carthamus leucocaulos (2n = 20) and C. lanatus (2n = 44) (M. O. Khidir and P. F. Knowles 1970b), C. creticus is similar to C. lanatus and was treated as a subspecies of the latter (P. Hanelt 1963, 1976).

Most American botanists have recognized this taxon at species rank, using the name Carthamus baeticus ascribed to (Boissier & Reuter) Nyman, based on the assumption that Nyman (Consp. Fl. Eur., 419. 1879) had proposed a new combination at the species level based on Kentrophyllum baeticum Boissier & Reuter. P. Hanelt (1963) used the name C. lanatus subsp. creticus for this taxon and treated both C. creticus and C. baeticus as synonyms. However, Hanelt (1976) substituted C. lanatus subsp. baeticus as the name for the taxon, ascribing the combination to the same Nyman publication. Hanelt (pers. comm.) has indicated that the contradictory nomenclatural citations were a result of Nyman’s peculiar way of presenting taxa that he considered to be subspecies: “in the work of Nyman the small-printed taxa subsumed under a ‘true’ species name and characterized by an asterisk had to be accepted as subspecies.” As a subspecific epithet, baeticus (1879) has nomenclatural priority over creticus (1914), hence Hanelt’s 1976 use of the former.

Like Carthamus lanatus, C. creticus is a noxious weed that can severely degrade infested rangelands.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 180.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Cardueae > Carthamus
Sibling taxa
C. lanatus, C. leucocaulos, C. tinctorius
Synonyms C. baeticus, C. lanatus subsp. baeticus, C. lanatus subsp. creticus
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. ed. 2, 2: 1163. (1763)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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