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Electronic Flora of South Australia species Fact Sheet

Family: Asteraceae
Centaurea calcitrapa

Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 917 (1753).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Star thistle, two-star thistle.

Description:
Annual or biennial to 100 cm high; stem densely divaricate-branched, terete, striate, pubescent; basal leaves oblanceolate, pinnatipartite with lanceolate serrate lobes, to 20 cm long, pubescent or slightly woolly when young, glandular, with prominent pale veins, withering before flowering; lower cauline leaves lanceolate and pinnatifid to lyrate, 1.5-8 cm long, 1-3 cm wide, dark-green, scabrous; uppermost leaves entire, narrowly lanceolate to linear, 2-4 mm wide.

Capitula solitary, 8-12 mm diam.; involucre subovoid, 10-15 mm long; bracts ovate, pale, glabrous; appendages with a straight patent terminal spine 10-25 mm long and 1-3 pairs of spinules 3-4 mm long at the base, straw-coloured; outer florets erect; corollas pale-purple or pink.

Achenes c. 3 mm long, pallid, streaked brown; pappus absent.

Published illustration: Parsons (1973) Noxious weeds of Victoria, p. 56.

Distribution:  Scattered on roadsides, waste land and pastures; occasional in arable land.

S.Aust.: NU, FR, EP, NL, MU, YP, SL, SE.   W.Aust.; N.S.W.; Vic.; Tas.   Native to southern and central Europe.

Conservation status: naturalised

Flowering time: most of the year.


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

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available


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