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Carthamus arborescens L.

Phonus arborescens (L.) G. López

Spa.: Cardo lechero, cardo cabrero.   Fre.: Carthame arborescent.

Shrub, very spiny, evergreen, hermaphrodite, up to 1.5(3) m in height, highly branched, upright but ± tortuous. Main stem and old branches woody, with very hard wood. Bark whitish-greyish. Main trunk and the older part of the branches appear bare, the ± middle part of the branches is densely covered by dry leaves, whitish-greyish, and finally, there are green leaves in the upper part. Young branchlets green. The whole shrub in general, with the exception of the trunk and older branches, is covered by numerous glandular hairs, making it sticky to the touch and giving it a strong characteristic odour. Leaves alternate, longly ovate, with large triangular-spinescent lobes, ± rigid, green on both sides, although they can be greenish-yellowish in the basal and central part of the upper side, sessile on the upper part of the branches, ± amplexicaul on the lower part. As the leaves dry, they take several years to detach from the branches. Inflorescence in solitary capitula, usually terminal, about 3.5-4.5 × 2.5-3.5 cm, ovoid, surrounded at the base by bracts very similar to leaves, of the same length or slightly longer than the capitulum, the other involucral bracts ± ovate-lanceolate, entire or dentate-spinescent. Flowers tubular, regular, without ligules, very protruding above the bracts, yellow. Fruit a small subtetragonal, elongated achene, with a brown and very rugose surface and pappus of caducous hairs, which fall easily when touched.