Nomenclature

Species name:

Carlina lanata   L.

Author(s):

Carl von Linné
   Sweden, 1707-1778

Common name:

Woolly Carline Thistle

Maltese name:

Sebqet 'l Ommha

Plant Family:

Asteraceae / Compositae   (Daisy Family)

Name Derivation:

Carlina = The Medieval name, derived from Carolus (Charles), and referring to the legend that Charlemagne used this plant to cure his army of the plague (Latin);

lanata = Woolly, referring to the woolly texture at the underside of leaves. (Latin).

Synonyms:

None

Plant Description

Life Cycle:

Annual

Habitat:

Fallow fields, dry waste places, rocky ground

Sources in Malta:

Used to be frequent but nowadays it became rare. A small population was encountered in July 2006 at the West coast of Malta

Plant Height:

10-45cm

Flowering Time:

May-Jul

An annual Mediterranean spiny thistle that does not grow very high; around 30cm. Plant has is light green colour and the stem forms few (sometime none) branches that usually do not sub-branch and each give rise to a solitary flower head (a capitulum).

The leaves roughly have a slender, oblong shape with prominent sinusoidal and elevated margins. Leaf margins are further armed with several long, straw-coloured spines. The leaves measure about 65mm by 20mm. An important characteristic for this plant is the presence of dense, white, wool-like hair at the underside of the leaves, which other Carlina species in Malta lack. Upper leaves can be found clasping the stem.

The large capitulum is very conspicuous both because of the radiating, spiny, outer bracts (looking like the leaves), and because of the beautiful purple-coloured rim of non-spiny, inner bracts. The outer involucral bracts are much larger from the inner ones being 25-40mm long compared to 10-12mm of the latter. There are 4 to 5 rows of inner involucral bracts (phyllaries), slightly woolly, scale-like, partially overlapping, and green. The outermost row is specialized in being longer (x2) and petal-like with a purple colour. On a closer look, the green inner bracts have a long-pointed tip that is bent outwards.

The packed florets have a cream-yellow colour and do not exceed in length the purple inner bracts; hence they look sunken down by a couple of millimetres. The florets have a tube-shaped corolla that do not subdivide into prominent petaloid lobes. The reproductive organs resides inside every small floret and are barely visible to the naked eye. A thin style comes out from the floret's corolla and there is a collar of fused stamens, found somewhere around the upper part of the style, just outside the corolla rim.

Each fertilised floret develops into an achene about 3-4mm long with a bristly pappus that is long between 12-15mm. Seeds are dispersed by wind in August to September.

Further Information and Links

Buy from and support MaltaWildPlants.com

Submit More Information