Cynara
Perennial herbs, spiny; stems erect, terete. Leaves basal and cauline, alternate, pinnatisect, spiny. Capitula more or less globose, terminal, in loose cymes of 2 or 3, or solitary; involucral bracts in several series, broad, leathery or fleshy, unequal, glabrous, with a spinose, ovate or triangular apical appendage; receptacle convex, fleshy, hairy. Florets bisexual, tubular, more or less equal, purple, blue or white; corolla deeply 5-lobed, glabrous; anthers sagittate at base, with subulate appendages at apex; style bilobed, with appressed linear terete branches. Cypselas ovoid to obovoid, glabrous; pappus of several series of plumose bristles united in a ring at base, deciduous as a single unit.
10 species, in the Mediterranean region; 2 species naturalised in Australia.
Jeanes, J.A. (1999). Asteraceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 4, Cornaceae to Asteraceae, pp. 652–666. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
