Pieris comosa, (Boiss.) B. D. Jackson

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 : 316

3. P. comosa (Boiss.) B. D. Jackson , Ind. Kew. 2: 521 (1894)

( Helmintia comosa Boiss. ).

Annual or biennial. Stems 30-70 cm, with scattered spines and few to numerous rigid hairs. Leaves with bulbous-based spines and rigid hairs; basal 50-150 x 35-50 mm, more or less elliptical, obtuse, entire to sinuatedentate, subpetiolate; lower cauline similar to basal, the upper broader, sessile, amplexicaul. Capitula numerous. Involucre (15—)20—25 x 13-15 mm; outer bracts ovate-lanceolate, acute, with thickened midrib, spiny-pectinate margins, and also rigid hairs; inner bracts more than twice as long as outer, linearlanceolate, acute, with a dorsal appendage much exceeding the apex of the bracts, with rigid hairs mainly along the median line. Achenes 8-10 mm, reddish-brown, transversely muricate, more or less straight; beak c. i as long as the body. Dry scrub. S. Spain. Hs. (N. Africa.)