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Carduus
Also called Thistle, Plumeless Thistles, Thistles
Carduus is a genus of mostly annual or biennial spiny thistles, several of which are invasive weeds outside their native Eurasia and North Africa. Growing them is rarely the goal; the key is that they spread readily in disturbed ground.
Carduus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, and the tribe Cardueae, one of two genera considered to be true thistles, the other being Cirsium. Plants of the genus are known commonly as plumeless thistles. They are native to temperate Eurasia and North Africa, and several are known elsewhere as introduced species. This genus is noted for its disproportionately high number of noxious weeds compared to other flowering plant genera.
Several Carduus are notorious invasive plants outside their native range, for example, in Australia and the United States. Species such as C. acanthoides, C. nutans, C. pycnocephalus, and C. tenuiflorus easily become weedy in disturbed habitat, such as overgrazed pasture. C. nutans is allelopathic, producing compounds that inhibit the growth and development of other plants.
Carduus argentatus · Curly plumeless thistle · Musk Thistle · Italian plumeless thistle
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Carduus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
