Centaurea calcitrapa L.
Family: Asteraceae, Tribe: Cynareae
Pertinent Synonyms & Notes (particularly those used in California; go to GRIN for other synonyms)
none
Pertinent Common Names (particularly those used in California; go to GRIN for other common names)
purple starthistle
Primary Disseminule Type
fruit
Description (diagnostics are in brown)
Fruit a cypsela, oblong to obovate, compressed, cross-section elliptic, 2.5–3.5 mm long x 1.5–2 mm wide x 0.9–1 mm thick. Surface typically glabrous, dull to shiny, gray with various amounts of brown mottling and thin striping. Pappus none.
Style base cylindrical to lobed, whitish, sitting on a whitish mound surrounded by a pericarp-colored collar 1–1.1 mm across.
Fruit attachment scar whitish, in lateral hook-shaped depression.
Similar Species
Similar Species Comparison Chart
Risk Assessment (codes in yellow or red indicate cause for concern; assessments are current as of mid-2011; click AUQP, NZBORIC, or NZBPI for access to the most recent versions of these databases and possible assessment changes)
AUQP, NZBORIC, NZBPI