Cirsium Mill.

Pope, G.V. (1992) Compositae Flora Zambesiaca 6(1)

Description of the genus

Perennial or biennial (annual) herbs. Stems spiny-winged from decurrent leaf bases, rarely unarmed. Leaves pinnatifid with spine-tipped teeth at the margins. Capitula homogamous, discoid, loosely aggregated (or large solitary and terminal) on the branches. Phyllaries numerous many-seriate imbricate appressed, ± patent apically and usually spine-tipped, margins entire to spinulose or lacerate. Receptacle flat or convex, densely long-setose. Corollas white to purple (yellowish), narrowly tubular with a broad deeply 5-lobed limb. Fruit achenes ± oblong, compressed smooth, glabrous with a raised annular collar at the apex, attachment scar. Pappus many-seriate; setae plumose, connate into a ring at the base, deciduous (± persistent), longest in the innermost series.

Worldwide: 250-300 species, in North America, Europe, Asia and North Africa.

Zambia: 1 taxon.

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Links to taxa:     View: living plant images - herbarium specimen images - all images for this genus

SpeciesFZ divisionsProvincesContent
buchwaldii O.Hoffm. NNDescription, Image

Other sources of information about Cirsium :

Our websites:

Flora of Caprivi: cultivated Cirsium
Flora of Malawi: Cirsium

External websites:

African Plants: A Photo Guide (Senckenberg): Cirsium
BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library): Cirsium
EOL (Encyclopedia of Life): Cirsium
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): Cirsium
Google: Web - Images - Scholar
iNaturalist: Cirsium
IPNI (International Plant Names Index): Cirsium
JSTOR Plant Science: Cirsium
Mansfeld World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops: Cirsium
Plants of the World Online: Cirsium
Tropicos: Cirsium
Wikipedia: Cirsium

Copyright: Mike Bingham, Annette Willemen, Bart Wursten, Petra Ballings and Mark Hyde, 2011-24

Bingham, M.G., Willemen, A., Wursten, B.T., Ballings, P. and Hyde, M.A. (2024). Flora of Zambia: Genus page: Cirsium .
https://www.zambiaflora.com/speciesdata/genus.php?genus_id=1916, retrieved 28 March 2024

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