Cirsium candelabrum, Griseb.

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1976, Flora Europaea. Volume 4. Plantaginaceae to Compositae (and Rubiaceae), Cambridge University Press : 240

43. C. candelabrum Griseb. , Spicil. FI. Rumel. 2: 251 (1846).

Glabrous biennial 150-200(-300) cm. Stem much-branched. Leaves coriaceous, undulate, lanceolate to oblong, pinnatifid; segments triangular, lobed; lobes dentate, with stout spines (6-)10-15(-25) mm. Capitula in clusters of 4—12, subsessile at apex of short branches, forming a long panicle, with 2-8 narrow, rigid, undulate, spiny subtending leaves about as long as capitulum. Involucre 14-19 x 7-13 mm; bracts appressed, with distinct vittae; outer with rather stout, erecto-patent spine 1-3 mm; middle to inner somewhat expanded and spinescent-ciliate at apex. Corolla 13-17 mm, white or whitish-yellow. Achenes 3 -5-5 mm; pappus 13-16 mm. Grassland, scrub, stony places. • Balkan peninsula, S. W. Romania. Al Bu Gr Ju Rm.

C. echinus (Bieb.) Hand.-Mazz. , Ann. Naturh. Mus. (Wien) 23: 197 (1909) (C. scleranthum Bieb.), from Anatolia, has been recorded from Turkey-in-Europe and Czechoslovakia, but probably only as a casual. It is like 43 but differs in the pubescent stem 40-60(-130) cm, leaves whitish-arachnoid-tomentose beneath, the capitula solitary or in clusters of 2-3 on short branches, the outer involucral bracts with an ovate, whitish-fimbriate appendage and an apical spine 4-6 mm, and the corolla 17-20 mm.