Corymbose carline-thistle

Carlina corymbosa, the clustered or corymbose carline-thistle, is a herbaceous perennial of the daisy family (Asteraceae) native to the Mediterranean basin. It grows from a stout rhizome with overwintering buds and produces erect, almost leafless, green to whitish stems reaching 10-90 cm tall. The alternate leaves are pinnatifid to deeply lobed with stiff spines along the margins. From June to August the stems carry corymbose clusters of bright yellow flower heads 2.0-3.5 cm in diameter; the showy spreading involucral bracts function as ray-like structures around a centre of tubular, hermaphroditic disc florets pollinated by bees, wasps and butterflies. The achenes are dispersed by wind on a feathery yellow pappus. The species grows in sunny, sandy or rocky places, dry grasslands, roadsides and fallow ground from sea level to about 1,200 metres across southern Europe, Anatolia and the western Mediterranean.