Onopordum L.

Biennial herbs. Hairs multicellular or unicellular, usually cottony, woolly, or felted, sometimes short and glandular. Lvs alternate, sessile, subentire or pinnatifid or pinnatisect, dentate; lobes and teeth spine-tipped. Capitula homogamous, globose to ovoid, solitary or clustered. Involucral bracts in several series, deltoid to linear, glabrous, puberulent or tomentose; apex spinous. Receptacle flat; scales connate, enclosing bases of achenes in pits with dentate margins. Florets ☿, all tubular. Corolla glabrous or glandular, 5-lobed, reddish, purple, pink or white. Anthers subulate at apex, shortly caudate at base; filaments hairy. Style branches linear, erect, appressed. Achenes obovoid to clavate, 4–5-angled, glabrous, smooth or rugose; achene insertion basal; pappus hairs in 1 or several rows, soft to stiff, plumose or scabrid, united at base into a ring.

[From: Webb et al. (1988) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 4.]