Notobasis syriaca
(L.) Cass. Syrian ThistleAnnual, to 1.5 m high. Leaves dark green with white veins and glabrescent above, paler and hairier below; basal leaves elliptic, to 30 cm long and 15 cm wide, lobes spine-tipped, petiolate; cauline leaves lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, to 15 cm long and 6 cm wide, pinnatifid, base broadly auriculate-amplexicaul, sessile, uppermost pinnatisect or nearly reduced to spines surrounding and exceeding capitula. Capitula shortly pedunculate, 1.5–2.5 cm diam.; involucral bracts ovate, to 2.5 cm long, c. glabrous; outer bracts with a short apical spine; inner involucral bracts acuminate. Florets purple, rarely white. Cypselas 5–6 mm long, brown; pappus outer bristles 13–16 mm long, inner hairs 1–2 mm long. Flowers spring and summer.
Native from the Mediterranean region to central Asia. In Victoria, known only by several old (1920 and 1921) collections from the Mansfield district.
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.
Spinning