''Carduus argentatus'', sometimes known as the silver thistle, is an annual herb in the family

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

. As a member of the genus ''

Carduus ''Carduus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, and the tribe Cardueae, one of two genera considered to be true thistles, the other being ''Cirsium''. Plants of the genus are known commonly as plumeless thistles.

'' it is known as a plumeless thistle.''Carduus''.
Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS). It is found throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East. Frequently growing in disturbed habitats, it is often found in sandy and stony desert

wadi Wadi ( ar, وَادِي, wādī), alternatively ''wād'' ( ar, وَاد), North African Arabic Oued, is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some instances, it may refer to a wet (ephemeral) riverbed that contains water onl ...

s. It is found in the eastern deserts of Egypt, through the East Mediterranean region and into Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It can be found growing in open woodlands and shrublands, on steppes and semi-steppes as well as in extreme desert conditions. It grows among mountain vegetation on Mount Hermon in the

Golan Heights The Golan Heights ( ar, هَضْبَةُ الْجَوْلَانِ, Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or ; he, רמת הגולן, ), or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about . The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between di ...

. In Crete it is found at altitudes of up to .

Taxonomy and etymology

The plant was originally described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

on page 280 of the ''

Mantissa Plantarum Altera ''Mantissa Plantarum Altera'', (abbreviated Mant. Pl. Alt.), is an illustrated book with botanical descriptions which was edited by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ...

'', October 1771. The genus name ''Carduus'' is from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for "a kind of thistle"''Carduus''.
The Jepson eFlora 2013. or "thistlelike plant".''Carduus''.
Flora of North America. It is related to the medieval Latin word ''Cardonnacum'' ("a place of chardons or thistles"), which is the origin of

Chardonnay Chardonnay (, , ) is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern French wine, France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from English wine, Englan ...

, the name of the

grape variety This list of grape varieties includes cultivated grapes, whether used for wine, or eating as a table grape, fresh or dried (raisin, currant, sultana). For a complete list of all grape species including those unimportant to agriculture, see Viti ...

.Chardonnay.
Viticultural Information. UC Integrated Viticulture, University of California. ''Argentatus'' is Latin for

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

Description

The plant grows to a height of about and has erect stems with spiny wings. They may be simple or have many branches. The leaves are spiny with toothed or serrated margins, those at the base forming a rosette and the stem leaves being alternate. The flower stem is

tomentose Trichomes (); ) are fine outgrowths or appendages on plants, algae, lichens, and certain protists. They are of diverse structure and function. Examples are hairs, glandular hairs, scales, and papillae. A covering of any kind of hair on a plant ...

and the pink to lavender flowers are single and bloom in April and May. They have spiny bracts and ovate sepals which are

mucronate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...

but not spiny. They are followed by fruits known as cypselae which are ovoid and slightly flattened. The calyx persists as pappus or may fall off in rings.

John Wilkes John Wilkes (17 October 1725 – 26 December 1797) was an English radical journalist and politician, as well as a magistrate, essayist and soldier. He was first elected a Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he fo ...

's ''Encyclopaedia Londinensis'' (volume III, 1810) makes note of the "remarkable" features of the plant including the leaves' spots of white ''(pictured)'', which it reports are found in three other species of "Egyptian thistle". Carduus argentatus

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q1030070 argentatus Butterfly food plants Plants described in 1771 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus