CARLINA GUMMIFERA

Family:- COMPOSITAE/Subgen. CARLINA

Common Name:- Pine thistle, Atractylis

Synonyms:- Atractylis gummifera, Chamaeleon gummifer

Meaning:- Carlina (L) For Charlemagne (742-814) Emperor of Rome (whose army

was supposed to have been cured of the plague with a species of Carlina, which the

Archangel had revealed to him).

Gummifera (L) Gum producing.

General description:- A low, stout but stemless, thistle-like plant, hairy in part.

Leaves:-

1) 15-40 x 5-12 cm, oblong-lanceolate in outline, pinnatipartite, segments 5-8 pairs,

oblong, divided into pinnatifid lobes.

2) Lobes acuminate, spinose-dentate.

3) Petiole 8-14 cm, sheathed at the base.

Flowers:-

1) Capitula, purple or pinkish.

2) Involucre, 30-70 mm, densely arachnoid-lanate.

3) Middle involucral bracts, ligulate, with 3 patent apical spines 10-25 mm and

much shorter lateral spines.

4) Inner bracts, somewhat glaucous, with a brown apical spine 3-5 mm.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes 5-6 x 2·5-3 mm.

2) Pappus 20-25 mm, white.

Key features:-

1) Stems absent.

2) Involucre 30-70 mm, the middle bracts with 3 patent apical spines much longer

than the lateral spines.

Habitat:- Dry grassland, field margins, open dry shrubby vegetation, wasteground.

0-750 m. (occasionally to 1300 m.).

Distribution:- W and C Med, including NW Africa, eastwards to Greece.

Widespread on Crete.

Flowering time:- May-June and again Sept-Oct.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton