Onopordum bracteatum, Boiss. & Heldr.

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 : 247

11. O. bracteatum Boiss. & Heldr. in Boiss., Diagn. Pl. Or. Nov. 2(10): 91 (1849).

Plant up to 180 cm. Stem yellowish or white, hairy; wings palmately spiny. Leaves up to 30 x 8 cm, oblonglanceolate, sessile, pinnatisect or almost pinnate, with 10-12 pairs of lobes; lobes palmate to dentate. Capitula 50-70 mm in diameter, ovoid-globose, glabrous; involucral bracts broadly lanceolate, long-acuminate, with a stout pungent apex. Corolla 30-40 mm, purple. Achenes 5-6 mm, brown; pappus 8-10 mm. Calcicole. S. part of Balkan peninsula and Aegean region, mainly in the mountains. Bu Cr Gr. 1 Plant white at first, lanate; capitula surrounded by upper leaves

(a) subsp. bracteatum 1 Plant greyish-green, not lanate; capitula not surrounded by upper leaves

2 Stem-wings up to 5 mm wide; involucral bracts with apical spine up to 5 mm (d) subsp. myriacanthum 2 Stem-wings up to 15 mm wide; involucral bracts with apical spine up to 12 mm

3 Leaves greyish-green and glabrescent beneath; involucral bracts 5-8 mm wide (b) subsp. illex 3 Leaves densely whitish-tomentose beneath; involucral bracts 8-10 mm wide (c) subsp. creticum