Carthamus ferox

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 Carthamus

Annuals or perennials, 30-180 cm. herbage glabrous to ± glandular and/or ± tomentose . Stems usually erect , branched distally or throughout, (leafy). Leaves basal and cauline or all cauline; basal and proximal cauline winged-petiolate, distal cauline sessile, sometimes clasping ; blade margins dentate to pinnately lobed , ± spiny , faces glabrous or ± glandlar and/or ± tomentose. Heads discoid , borne singly or in few-headed cymiform arrays. Involucres ovoid , constricted distally. Phyllaries many in 4-5 series. linear to ovate (at least outer ± leaflike), bases appressed , apical appendages more herbaceous, prominently veiny , spiny-dentate or -lobed, spine. tipped. Receptacles convex to conic, epaleate, bearing subulate scales . Florets 15-60+. corollas yellow to red or ± purple, tubes very slender, throats gradually or abruptly expanded, ± cylindric or short-campanulate, lobes linear; anther bases short-tailed, apical appendages oblong ; style branches: fused portions with slightly swollen basal nodes minutely hairy , distally minutely papillate , distinct portions very short. Cypselae oblong to obpyramidal , ± 4-angled, apices with smooth or dentate rims, faces usually ± roughened (outer) or smooth (inner), glabrous, attachment scar . lateral ; pappi 0 or (usually only inner cypselae) ± persistent , of many, usually unequal, narrow scales overlapping in several series. x = 10, 12.

Species 14: introduced ; United States; Mediterranean region.[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: Spermatopsida () - Brongniart, 1843
        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: Centaureinae ()
        Genus: Carthamus () - C. Linnaeus, 1753 - Distaff thistle [Arabic qartam, safflower]
        Specific epithet: ferox - Lam.
        Botanical name: - Carthamus ferox Lam.