CARDUUS DEFLORATUS - ALPINE THISTLE - 10 SEED PACK - EXOTIC IN SOUTH AFRICA

Carduus is a genus of flowering plants in the aster family, Asteraceae, and the tribe Cynareae, the thistles. It is one of two genera considered to be "true thistles", the other being Cirsium. Plants of the genus are known commonly as plumeless thistles. They are native to Eurasia and Africa, and several are known elsewhere as introduced species. The genus name Carduus is from the Latin for "a kind of thistle" or "thistlelike plant". It is related to the word Cardonnacum ("a place of chardons or thistles"), which is the origin of Chardonnay, the name of the grape variety. These are usually annual or biennial herbs, sometimes perennial. Species often grow 2 meters in height but are known to reach 4 meters.         The erect stems are winged and spiny, and usually have woolly hairs. The leaf blades are hairy to hairless and entire or divided into lobes, and they have spine-toothed edges. The flower heads are solitary or borne in inflorescences of up to 20. The head is spherical to cylindrical and covered in several layers of spreading or curving spine-tipped phyllaries. It contains long, tubular disc florets in shades of white, pink, or purple. The fruit is a cypsela tipped with a pappus of barbed bristles or scales. Carduus defloratus commonly known as Alpine thistle can reach 80 cm in height but averages from 30cm to 50cm. They are perennial plants. The stem is erect and simple, but also sometimes branched at the bottom. The stems are also cylindrical and white to tomentose and generally almost devoid of leaves. They bare purple flowers in spring.