About Carthamus lanatus L.
Carthamus lanatus L. is a spiny, glandular, woolly plant. It often looks like it is covered in spiders' webs because of its fine, tangled fibers. It has a pale stem that can grow up to one meter tall, along with rigid, pointed, very spiny leaves. Its flower head has many long, sharp phyllaries; these can reach up to several centimeters in length and often bend backwards, which is called being recurved. The disc florets of this plant are bright yellow. A single plant can produce many stems, which mat together because of their spines and form a small thicket. The fruit is an achene around half a centimeter long, which bears many rigid pappus scales.
