Carthamus lanatus L.
saffron thistle
Annual. Stems rigid, erect, with sparse long multicellular hairs, fine cobwebby hairs, and short, stalked glandular hairs, ribbed, 25-40-(70) cm tall. Lvs 1-2-pinnatifid, glossy green, with sparse short stalked glandular hairs and very sparse multicellular and fine cobwebby hairs, rigidly spinose-dentate, 2-7-(12) × 1.5-3-(5) cm; veins prominent; lobes and spines at ± 90° to margin. Capitula terminal, solitary, ovoid. Outer involucral bracts spreading to deflexed, leaflike; middle bracts similar, but suberect; inner bracts c. 1/2length of outer, sparsely cobwebby, with an erect, lanceolate, fimbriate, scarious apex. Corolla yellow with purplish veins, 25-30 mm long; lobes 6-7 mm long; tube swollen at throat, convoluted below. Anthers pale; filaments bearded. Achenes obpyramidal, 4-ribbed, 5-8 × 3-5 mm, the outer rugulose, the inner ± smooth. Pappus scales linear, flattened, ciliate, sordid to brown, 1-10 mm long.
N.: throughout; S.: Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury (N. of Rakaia R.).
W., C., and S. Europe, S.W. and C. Asia 1931
Pasture, roadsides, waste land, arable land, river flats, fowl runs, railway ballast.
FL (Oct)-Jan-Apr FT Jan-Apr.
N.Z. plants of C. lanatus are all referable to subsp. baeticus (Boiss. et Reuter) Nyman, although they lack purple markings on the anthers.
