9464.000 Silybum Adans. - Milk thistle

Clapham, A.R., Tutin, T.G. & Moore, D.M. (1989) Flora of the British Isles. 3rd edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

Leistner, O.A. (ed.) (2000) Seed plants of southern Africa: families and genera Strelitzia 10

Description of the genus

Annual or biennial thistles. Leaves alternate or borne in a basal rosette, white-veined or variegated above, sinuately lobed or pinnatifid, with a spiny margin. Capitula discoid, solitary, terminal, erect or nodding. Phyllaries of many spiny bracts. Receptacle hairy, not pitted. Florets all tubular and bisexual, red-purple; stamens united below into a tube. Achenes obovoid, flattened, glabrous, crowned with a membranous border. Pappus of many rows of rough hairs, united below into a basal ring.

Worldwide: 2 species in the Mediterranean region, Central Europe and the Middle East; naturalised elsewhere.

Zimbabwe: 1 cultivated taxon.

Silybum marianum

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

SpeciesContent
marianum (L.) Gaertn.Description, Image

Other sources of information about Silybum:

External websites:

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

Copyright: Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten, Petra Ballings and Meg Coates Palgrave, 2002-24

Hyde, M.A., Wursten, B.T., Ballings, P. & Coates Palgrave, M. (2024). Flora of Zimbabwe: Cultivated plants: genus page: Silybum.
https://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/cult/genus.php?genus_id=2101, retrieved 31 October 2024

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