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

Synonymy: Onopordum illyricum

Common name: Illyrian thistle.

Description:
Annual or biennial herb to 1.5 m high; stems erect, unbranched below the inflorescence, white-woolly, with continuous spiny wings to 1 cm wide; basal leaves oblanceolate to elliptic, to 55 cm long, to 15 cm wide, pinnatipartite, with numerous spines to 1 cm long, white- or grey-woolly on both surfaces; cauline leaves narrowly lanceolate, to 30 cm long, pinnatifid to pinnatipartite with numerous spines to 1 cm long, white- or grey-woolly, decurrent at the base.

Capitula few in a terminal corymb, pedunculate, erect, 4-5.5 cm diam.; involucral bracts lanceolate, to 3 cm long, purplish, with a short apical spine, the outer ones cobwebby at the base, recurved above, the inner ones erect, glabrous; corollas 25-30 mm long, purple, glandular.

Achenes compressed-obovoid, 4-angled, faintly wrinkled, 4-5 mm long; pappus bristles 10-12 mm long, plumose.

Published illustration: Parsons (1973) Noxious weeds of Victoria, p. 80.

Distribution:  S.Aust.: NL, MU.   N.S.W.; Vic.   Native to south-western Europe. Conservation status: naturalised Flowering time: Dec. — Feb.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: O. illyricum is locally important as a weed in N.S.W. and Vic., and has recently been recorded from a few scattered localities in S.Aust.

Author: Not yet available