Notobasis syriaca (L.) Cass.

Seedling

Cotyledons large, 25-50 x 15-30 mm, oval-rounded, with visible veins, fleshy, petiolate, glabrous. First leaves rosette-shaped, simple, elliptic-lanceolate, glossy green, whitish-veined, toothed-spiny at the margin, bristly with coarse hairs, short-petiolate. The hypocotyl axis is short, 10 mm, and greenish. The seedling is dark green.

Adult plant

Notobasis syriaca is an annual, spiny plant with an erect habit and no milky juices. The stem is sparsely branched, furrowed and woolly-pubescent, reaching a height of 150 cm. Radical leaves of very variable size, lanceolate, white-veined, with strongly spiny lobes, glabrous above, pubescent below; the upper leaves sessile, clasping, pennate, with spines opposite in pairs. Capitula isolated or in groups of 2-3, large, 2 to 3 cm in diameter, with purplish florets, surrounded by an involucre of 3-5 coriaceous, spiny bracts, exceeding the flowers. Involucral bracts on 5-7 series, coriaceous, mucronulate at apex. Florets all tubulate, hermaphrodite, purple or white corolla, tubular at the base and ending in 5 lobes shorter than the tube. Achenes pyriform, compressed, 6-7 x 4-5 mm, smooth, brown, surmounted by a ring of feathery white bristles fused in a ring at the base.

Origin

Notobasis syriaca is native to the Mediterranean basin.

Worldwide distribution

This species has been introduced into Ethiopia and Australia (Victoria).

Algeria: A fairly common species throughout the Tell.