Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 827 (1753).

Derivation: Greek onopordon, the name of a species of thistle.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Thistles.

Description:
Spiny annual or biennial herbs with woolly vestiture; stems absent or erect with spiny wings; leaves basal or cauline, alternate, dentate to pinnatisect.

Capitula terminal, solitary or clustered, ovoid to globular, homogamous; involucres campanulate; bracts rigid, herbaceous, spine-tipped, imbricate in several unequal series; receptacles flat, naked, pitted; florets all tubular, bisexual, fertile; corolla purple to pink, narrow below, abruptly widened and 5-lobed above; anthers sagittate at the base with subulate sterile appendages at the apex; style branches diverging at the apex only, without appendages.

Achene 4- or 5-angled, glabrous; pappus of numerous barbellate or plumose bristles connate in a ring at the base and deciduous as a unit.

Distribution:  40 species in Europe and western Asia.

Biology: No text

Key to Species:

1. Stem absent	O. acaulon 2.
1. Stem present, erect
2. Stem with several branches; spines yellow	O. acanthium 1.
2. Stem unbranched below the inflorescence; spines dark	O. illyricum 3.

Author: Not yet available