Carlina brevibracteata

Interesting Facts

Description

Family Compositae

The largest family of flowering plants , the Compositae (Asteraceae), comprising about 1,100 genera and more than 20,000 species and characterized by many small flowers arranged in a head looking like a single flower and subtended by an involucre of bracts. A head may consist of both ray flowers and disk flowers, as in the sunflower, of disk flowers only, as in the burdock, or of ray flowers only, as in the dandelion.

Genus Carlina

Biennials [annuals or perennials , shrubs , or dwarf trees ], 10-80 cm. herbage spiny . Stems erect or spreading , simple to branched distally or throughout. branches ascending to spreading. Leaves basal and cauline [all cauline]; petiolate or sessile; blade margins dentate to pinnately lobed , ± spiny, faces ± tomentose or glabrate . Heads discoid , borne singly or in corymbiform arrays. Involucres hemispheric to campanulate . Phyllaries many in several series. outer ovate to lanceolate, bases appressed ; (at least outer ± leaflike) ; middle smaller, scarious , margins spiny-dentate or -lobed, apical appendages spine-tipped, inner apices spreading, membranous, white to stramineous , raylike, entire . Receptacles flat to conic, epaleaete scaly or bristly (each floret surrounded by ± connate , membranous scales dissected into linear lobes ). Florets many; corollas yellow to maroon, tubular-funnelform, lobes triangular; anther bases tailed , linear-oblong, apical appendages acute; style branches: fused portions ca. 0.5 mm, with basal nodes glabrous or minutely hairy , distally puberulent. distinct portions tapered, not or scarcely separating. Cypselae cylindric to fusiform , not ribbed , without apical rim. hairy with forked , 2-celled hairs , attachment scars basal-oblique; pappi readily falling, of many persistent bristles in 1 series, basally connate in groups of 3-10, plumose . x = 9, 10.

Species 28: introduced ; Eurasia , Mediterranean region, Macaronesia.[1]

Taxonomy

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Domain: Eukaryota () - Whittaker & Margulis,1978 - eukaryotes
- Kingdom: Plantae () - Haeckel, 1866 - Plants
  - Subkingdom: Viridaeplantae () - Cavalier-Smith, 1981
    - Phylum: Tracheophyta () - Sinnott, 1935 ex Cavalier-Smith, 1998 - Vascular Plants
      - Subphylum: Euphyllophytina ()
        Class: Magnoliopsida () - Brongniart, 1843 - Dicotyledons
        Subclass: Asteridae () - Takhtajan, 1967
        Superorder: Campanulanae () - Takhtajan Ex Reveal, 1992
        Order: Asterales () - Lindley, 1833
        Family: Compositae () - Giseke, 1792, nom. cons., nom. alt.
        Subfamily: Carduoideae ()
        Tribe: Cardueae ()
        Subtribe: Carlininae ()
        Genus: Carlina () - C. Linnaeus, 1753 - Carline-thistle [For Charles V, 1500-1558, Holy Roman Emperor]
        Specific epithet: brevibracteata - (Andrae) Simonk.
        Botanical name: - Carlina brevibracteata (Andrae) Simonk.