Carthamus tinctoria

• Interesting Facts
• Description
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

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

Similar Species

Members of the genus Carthamus

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 10 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

C. baeticus baeticus (Smooth Distaff Thistle) · C. lanatus (Distaff Thistle) · C. lanatus baeticus (Distaff Thistle) · C. lanatus lanatus (Woolly Distaff Thistle) · C. leucocaulos (Distaff Thistle) · C. oxyacantha (Jeweled Distaff Thistle) · C. oxyacanthus (Wild Safflower) · C. tinctorius (American Saffron) · C. tinctorius 'Grenade Mix' (American Saffron) · C. tinctorius 'Magestic Orange' (American Saffron)

More Info

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• Search using Specialized Databases: GenBank | Medline | Scirus | CISTI/CAL | Agricola Periodicals | Agricola Books

Further Reading

• A handbook of tropical gardening and planting, with special reference to Ceylon, by H. F. Macmillan. .. Colombo, H.W. Cave & co., 1914. url p. 562.
• A student's text-book of botany / by Sydney H. Vines. London: Macmillan, 1895. url p. 664.
• A student's text-book of botany, by Sydney H. Vines. With 483 illustrations. London, Macmillan & co., 1896. url .
• Analytical class-book of botany, designed for academies and private students. In two parts: Part 1. Elements of vegetable structure and physiology. By Frances H. Green. Part 11. Systematic botany: illustrated by a compendious flora of the northern states. By Joseph W. Congdon. London, D. Appleton, 1855. url p. 98.
• Analytical class-book of botany: designed for academies and private students. In two parts: Part 1. Elements of vegetable structure and physiology / by Frances H. Green. Part 11. Systematic botany, by Joseph W. Congdon. New York: D. Appleton, 1856. url p. 98.
• Biology of deserts: the proceedings of a symposium on the biology of hot and cold deserts organized by the Institute of Biology / edited by J.L. Cloudsley-Thompson. London: Institute of Biology; 1954. url p. 72.
• Botany for high schools and colleges / by Charles E. Bessey. New York: H. Holt, 1883, c1880. url p. 512.
• Botany. New York, Holt, 1889. url p. 512.
• Bulletin - United States National Museum. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, [etc.];1877-1971. url p. 126.
• Bulletin of the Essex Institute. Salem, Mass., Essex Institute. url p. 6.
• Bulletin of the New York Botanical Garden. Lancaster, Pa.: Published for the Garden by the New Era Printing Co., url p. 54.
• C. E. Hobbs Botanical hand-book of common local, English, botanical and pharmacopial names arranged in alphabetical order, of most of the crude vegetable drugs, etc., in common use. Especially designed as a reference book for druggists and apothecaries. Comp. and pub. by Charles E. Hobbs. Boston, Printed by C.C. Roberts, 1876. url p. 80.
• C.E. Hobbs' Botanical hand-book: of common local, English, botanical and pharmacopœial names arranged in alphabetical order, of most of the crude vegetable drugs, etc., in common use: their properties, productions and uses in an abb Boston: Printed by C.C. Roberts, 1876. url , , .
• Diseases of plants induced by cryptogamic parasites: introduction to the study of pathogenic Fungi, slime-Fungi, bacteria, & Algae / London; Longmans, Green & co., 1897. url .
• Garden flowers; how to cultivate them. A treatise on the culture of hardy ornamental trees, shrubs, annuals, herbaceous and bedding plants. By Edward Sprague Rand, jr.... New York, Hurd and Houghton, 1876. url p. 91.
• Guide to the Economic Museum of the New York Botanical Garden. New York, 1921. url p. 54.
• Memoir on the physical and political geography of New Granada. New York, T. Dwight, 1853. url p. 101.
• Old-fashioned gardening; a history and a reconstruction, New York, McBride, Nast & company, 1913. url .
• Phantom flowers, a treatise on the art of producing skeleton leaves. Boston, J. E. Tilton, 1864. url .
• Popular science monthly. New York: D. Appleton, 1872-1950. url p. 284.
• Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington. Washington, etc.: Entomological Society of Washington url p. 33.
• Reports of the Director. .. / Experimental Farms. Ottawa: Experimental Farms, 1888-1916. url p. 328.
• Some south Indian insects and other animals of importance considered especially from an economic point of view / by T. Bainbrigge Fletcher. Madras, Printed by the superintendent, government press, 1914. url p. 260, p. 486.
• Structural and systematic botany: being an arrangement of plants, forming a basis for the study of botany, either on the Linnaean or natural systems. London, C. Griffin[pref. 1855] url p. 195, p. 54.
• The commercial products of the vegetable kingdom, considered in their various uses to man and in their relation to the arts and manufactures; forming a practical treatise and handbook of reference for the colonist, manufacturer, merchant, and consume London, Day, 1854. url p. 652.
• The exploitation of plants / London: J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1917. url .
• Ashri, A. and P. F. Knowles. 1959. Further notes on Carthamus in California. Leafl. W. Bot. 9: 5-8.
• Ashri, A. and P. F. Knowles. 1960. Cytogenetics of safflower (Carthamus L.) species and their hybrids. Agron. J. 52: 11-17.
• Hanelt, P. 1963. Monographisch Übersicht der Gattung Carthamus L. (Compositae). Feddes Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 67: 41-180.
• Hanelt, P. 1976. Carthamus. In: T. G. Tutin et al., eds. 1964-1980. Flora Europaea. 5 vols. Cambridge. Vol. 4, pp. 302-303.
• Khidir, M. O. and P. F. Knowles. 1970b. Cytogenetic studies of Carthamus species (Compositae) with 32 pairs of chromosomes. II. Intersectional hybridization. Canad. J. Genet. Cytol. 12: 90-99.

Notes

Contributors

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 10, 2012.

Identifiers

• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 16100165
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 2117893

Footnotes

1. David J. Keil "Carthamus". in Flora of North America Vol. 19, 20 and 21 Page 52, 67, 83, 178. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.