Scolymus
| Scolymus | |
|---|---|
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| Scolymus hispanicus | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Asterids |
| Order: | Asterales |
| Family: | Asteraceae |
| Tribe: | Cichorieae |
| Genus: |
Scolymus L. |
| Synonyms | |
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Scolymus is a genus of annual, biennial or perennial, herbaceous plants that is assigned to the Daisy family, and can be found in Macaronesia, around the Mediterranean, and in the Middle East. All species are spiny, thistle-like in appearance, with flowerheads that consist of yellow (rarely orange or white) ligulate florets, and canals that contain latex. It is known as سكوليمس (skwlyms) in Arab, scolyme in French, and is sometimes called golden thistle or oyster thistle in English.
The species of Scolymus are spiny herbaceous annuals, biennials or perennials of up to 1¾ m high, that contain a milky latex. These have twenty chromosomes (2n=20).
Biannual and perennial plants produce a stout taproot of up to 8 cm in diameter and 60 cm long. Young plants consist of a rosette of leaves, which may be variegated, once-pinnately spiny-lobed, to 30 cm long, and having short, fleshy stalks. The stems can be simple or carry many branches, and carry spiny wings along their lengths. The wavy leaves with prominent veins are pinnately divided and are alternately set along the stems. The leaf margin has prominent pale green or yellow veins and large teeth which are topped by fierce spines. The leaf surface may initially be covered in soft, felty hairs, which quickly clear away, most slowly on the veins.
The flowerheads are seated at the end of the stem or in the limbs of the higher leaves, are arranged in a spike or a globose cluster and are subtended by two to more than five leaflike bracts. Each flowerhead is circled by an involucre that consists of many spine-tipped bracts in several rows, the outer papery and shorter than the inner ones, which are leaflike in consistency. These surround the common floral base (or receptacle), which is conical in shape and is set with ovate papery bracts called chaff or paleae. Inplanted are dorsally compressed cypselas, each enclosed by a palea, the outer rows higher than the inner ones. On top of the cypselas there may be two to five stiff scabrous bristles, which are equivalent to sepals (and are called pappus). Also, on top of the cypsela and within the pappus is a yellow, orange or white strap-like corolla which ends in five teeth, together comprising a ligulate floret.
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Wikipedia