Carduus acicularis Bertol.

Raab-Straube, Eckhard von & Raus, Thomas, 2024, Euro + Med-Checklist Notulae, 17, Willdenowia 54 (1), pp. 5-45 : 14

Carduus acicularis Bertol.

(≡ C. pycnocephalus var. acicularis (Bertol.) Weiss )

– Fig. 6.

A Cm: Crimea: Yalta region, vicinity of Goluboy Zaliv (Blue Bay) settlement, Limeny valley, territory of Yalta Nature Reserve, 44°24'19"N, 33°58'52"E, 140 m, Pinus plantation, side of fire-fighting country road, 9 Jun 2023, Ryff (YALT + photo); ibid., recreational complex near sea coast, 44°24'07"N, 33°59'17"E, 15 m, roadside, 28 Jun 2023, Ryff (photo).

– This species is native to the Mediterranean and Bulgaria. In Switzerland, it is probably alien ( Greuter 2006 +; POWO 2023). Compared to the closely related Carduus pycnocephalus L. s.l., C. acicularis is more slender, has longer (11–15 cm) and narrower (c. 1 mm in diam.) peduncles, narrower involucral bracts (not more than 0.5 mm wide in the middle part) and rugulose achenes ( Amaral Franco & Rocha Afonso 1976; Devesa & al. 2009). Carduus acicularis was probably accidentally introduced into Crimea in recent decades with building materials or seedlings of ornamental plants from the Mediterranean. Only two micropopulations in one area with a total number of c. 30 individuals have been found so far. However, it is possible that this species is more widely distributed, but it is easily confused with C. pycnocephalus , which often occurs on the S coast of Crimea in anthropogenic and seminatural habitats. In the coastal ruderal habitats of Goluboy Zaliv, C. acicularis grows together with C. pycnocephalus subsp. pycnocephalus . Carduus acicularis is also similar in habit to and can be confused with Tyrimnus leucographus (L.) Cass., which was recently found in SW Crimea ( Seregin & al. 2015). L. E. Ryff

Figures

Fig. 6. Carduus acicularis – A: flowering plant; B: capitulum; C: achene. – D: C. acicularis (left), C. pycnocephalus subsp. pycnocephalus (right), mature capitula. – E: C. acicularis (left), Carduus pycnocephalus subsp. pycnocephalus (right), achenes. – A–C: Crimea, Goluboy Zaliv, Jun 2023; D, E: ibid., 30 Jun 2023 (collected 28 Jun 2023), photographs by L. E. Ryff.