Weed Science & Agronomy
INRA-Dijon
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Unité de Malherbologie & Agronomie Weed Science & Agronomy INRA-Dijon |
Bayer Code : slyma
Synonym(s) of Sc. name:
Classification: Compositae, Dicotyledonous
Common name: milk thistle
Synonym(s) of Common name:
Name per country: DE : Mariendistel ; ES : cardo lechoso ; FR : chardon Marie ; IT : cardo di Santa Maria ; PT : cardo-leiteiro ;
Biological type: Biennial
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- Cotyledons elongate, spoon-like.
- Leaves entire, deeply notched.
- Height: 40-150 cm. Plant erect, robust, glabrous or nearly, branched.
- Leaves usually white-blotched above; cauline leaves sessile, not decurrent, amplexicaul with 2 rounded sinuate -toothed auricles, or pinnatifid with spinous-ciliate-margined lobes.
- Flowers crimson in solitary terminal heads. Important involucre (at less 3 cm in diameter), semi-spherical with glabrous bracts, the outer ones surmounted by a spreading, triangular appendage which ends in a stout spine.
- Fruit : achenes big, black, shining, more or less yellow- blotched and minutely wrinkled; each one is on a leathery pseudo-disk (the rest of the peduncle ) with a central, short, 3-5-tubercled cylinder.
- Plant cultivated as ornamental plant, and for the young leaves eaten as green salad and for roots cooked in stews and jams.
- Biological type: biennial or annual.
Ecological profile (click on flags):
Present
Present
Present
Rare
