SPECIES DESCRIPTION
GALACTITES TOMENTOSUS
Family:- COMPOSITAE
Common Names:- Mediterranean thistle, Galactites.
Meaning:- Galactites (Gr) Milk-like (reference to the white leaf venation).
Tomentosus (L) Thickly matted with hairs.
General description:- White-downy, short to tall annual.
Stems:-
1) (8-)15-100 cm. though often less.
Leaves:-
1) White-veined or variegated above, white-tomentose beneath.
2) Basal oblanceolate, serrate, petiolate, soon decaying.
3) Cauline 4-18 x 1-8 cm, pinnatifid, rarely undivided, sessile and shortly
decurrent, the spines 1·5-6(-8) mm.
.
Flowers:-
1) Capitula in a lax cyme.
2) Involucre 12-15 mm, greenish, sparsely arachnoid-pubescent.
3) Bracts with greenish spines 5-10 x 0·3-0·5 mm.
4) Phyllaries numerous, narrowly lanceolate, with stout midvein tapering into a
spine.
5) Receptacle densely hairy.
6) Florets pale to bright pinkish-purple, the outer much enlarged.
Fruit:-
1) Achenes 3-5 x 1-1·5 mm, yellowish.
2) Pappus 3-4 times as long as the achene.
Key features:-
1) Cauline leaves with spines 1·5-6(-8) mm.
2) Spines of involucral bracts 5-10 x 0·3-0·5 mm, greenish.
Habitat:- Damp to dry grassland, open scrubland vegetation, road verges, olive
groves, coastal habitats. 0-600(-1100) m.
Distribution:- Fairly common in W Greece, often gregarious along roads. - C & W
Mediterranean region and SW Europe, extending to the Atlantic islands
Widespread and fairly common on Crete.
Flowering time:- Late Mar to mid-June.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton
