Carduus meonanthus, Hoffmanns. & Link

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 : 231

43. C. meonanthus Hoffmanns. & Link , FI. Port. 2: 186 (1820- 1828).

Annual to biennial up to 65 cm. Stem arachnoid-hairy and glabrescent; wings up to 7 mm wide, palmate, with a slender apical spine up to 5 mm. Leaves oblanceolate to oblong, glabrescent above, arachnoid-hairy beneath with multicellular and sinuate unicellular hairs, with 8-10 pairs of palmate, acutely lobulate lobes, each with an apical spine up to 4 mm. Capitula 15-20 x 8-12 mm, subsessile, usually in clusters of 2-8; involucral bracts 0-75- 1-25 mm wide, imbricate but usually squarrose, linear-lanceolate, smooth on the back, glabrous or nearly so, with scarious margin, the mid-vein raised in the distal |; inner bracts 1| times as long as the inner middle, with scarious margins, 3- veined in the distal |. Corolla 11-16 mm. Achenes 3-4 mm, compressed, smooth; apical prominence small, sessile or shortly stipitate, entire; pappus 10-13 mm. 2л= 16. Sandy ground, usually near the sea. • C. & S. Portugal, S. W. Spain. HsLu.

Closely resembling 36 in vegetative characters but easily distinguished by the smaller, cylindrical, usually congested capitula with more or less recurved free apices to the involucral bracts and smaller florets.