Carduus asturicus, Franco

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 : 230

37. C. asturicus Franco , Bot. Jour. Linn. Soc. 71: 49 (1975).

Perennial up to 40 cm. Stem greyish-tomentose; wings up to 4 mm wide, triangular, with an apical spine up to 8 mm. Leaves oblanceolate or lanceolate, glabrous or glabrescent above, greyish-tomentose beneath, with sinuate unicellular hairs, with 3-5 pairs of palmate, triangular lobes, each with an apical spine up to 10 mm. Capitula 10-18 x 3-5-8 mm, cylindrical, subsessile, in clusters of 3-5; involucral bracts 0-5-1 -5 mm wide, closely imbricate, linear-subulate, glabrous, with scarious margin, the mid-vein raised in the distal |; inner bracts Ц times as long as the inner middle, scarious in the distal |. Corolla 14-16 mm. Achenes 4-5 mm, compressed, rugulose; apical prominence sessile, convex, small, unlobed; pappus 11-13 mm. Mountain pastures, 600-1600 m. • N. W. Portugal, N. W. Spain. Hs Lu.