DIPSACUS FULLONUM

Family and Genus:- See- COMPOSITAE

Common Names:- Cardo

Homotypic Synonyms:- Dipsacus fullonum subsp. sylvestris.

Meaning:- Dipsacus (Gr) Dropsy, a name used by the Greek physician and

botanist Dioscorides in an analogy of the water-collecting leaf bases.

Fullonum (L) Of cloth fullers, (used to tease a nap on woven woollen

cloth, known as fulling).

General description:- Stout, biennial herbs, with prickly stems more or less

branched above.

Stems:-

1) 50-200 cm, stout, erect, prickly on the angles.

Leaves:-

1) Basal, in a rosette, oblong-elliptical or oblanceolate, entire.

2) Cauline, margins, crenate-serrate to entire.

Flowers:-

1) Capitula, ovoid-cylindrical.

2) Involucral bracts, curved upwards, linear, unequal, the longest equalling or

exceeding the florets.

3) Receptacular scales, spinose-ciliate, with a rigid, recurved apical spine, equalling

the florets.

4) Corolla pinkish-purple.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes, 3-4 mm, light brown, sulcate.

Key features:-

1) Capitula ovoid-cylindrical.

2) Involucral bracts, linear, curved upwards.

3) Cauline leaves, crenate-serrate to entire.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Along roads, Woods, stream-sides, ditches and various damp places 0-

800 m.

Distribution:- Much of Europe and SW. Asia. Native distribution uncertain.

Previously unrecorded from Crete. Discovered by Marinos Gogolos on the Lassithi

Plateau in 2017. A further collony was found by Christopher Cheiladakis in 2021

near Floriia

Flowering time:- June-Sept.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton