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Carthamus tinctorius
Also called Dyer's Saffron, False Saffron
Safflower is a thistle-like annual herb in the daisy family, grown mainly as an oilseed crop for its seeds and historically for dye. It is a drought-tolerant plant of dry, seasonal-rain climates and needs full sun and well-drained soil.
Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius), also false saffron, is a highly branched, herbaceous, thistle-like annual plant in the family Asteraceae. It is one of the world's oldest crops; today, it is commercially cultivated for vegetable oil extracted from the seeds. Plants are 30 to 150 cm (12 to 59 in) tall with globular flower heads having yellow, orange, or red flowers. Each branch will usually have from one to five flower heads containing 15 to 20 seeds per head. Safflower is native to arid environments having seasonal rain. It grows a deep taproot which enables it to thrive in such environments.
Traditionally, the crop was grown for its seeds. It was also used for coloring and flavoring foods, in medicines, and making red (carthamin) and yellow dyes, especially before cheaper aniline dyes became available.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Safflower 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.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
