Strongly taprooted, rosetted annual or biennial to 1 m diam.; stems absent. Leaves oblanceolate to elliptic in outline, to 50 cm long and 12 cm wide, pinnatifid to pinnatisect with triangular lobes, ultimate lobes tipped by a yellow spine, both surfaces white-woolly or white-tomentose; petiole short, flat. Capitula sessile or on peduncles to 3 cm long, solitary or clustered at centre of rosette, subglobose, 4–6 cm diam.; involucral bracts ovate-lanceolate, 2–3 cm long, all erect or outer ones reflexed, tapered into a spinose apical appendage, green. Florets shorter than involucre, usually white. Cypselas 4–5 mm long, 4-ribbed, wrinkled, brown or grey; pappus 2–3 cm long, cream. Flowers mostly Oct.–Nov.
LoM, MuM, Wim, VVP, VRiv, MSB, RobP, MuF, Gold, DunT, NIS. Also naturalised WA, SA, NSW. Native to Spain and France. Scattered widely through the north-west of the State, often on roadsides, wasteland and pastures. Declared a noxious weed in Victoria.
Source:
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.
