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Notobasis syriaca
Syrian thistle is a spiny annual thistle of dry, semi-desert areas around the Mediterranean and into the Middle East, grown here as a curiosity or wildflower. Its key challenge is the sharp spines, and it does best in full sun with well-drained soil and little water.
Notobasis syriaca, or the Syrian thistle, is a species of flowering plant in the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae. It is native to the Mediterranean region and the Middle East, from Madeira, the Canary Islands, Morocco and Portugal east to Egypt, Iran and Azerbaijan.
It is an annual plant belonging to the semi-desert flora, growing to 30–100 cm tall. The leaves are spirally arranged on the stems, deeply lobed, grey-green with white veins, and sharp spines on the margins and apex. The flowers are purple, produced in a dense flowerhead (capitulum) 2 cm diameter, surrounded by several spiny basal bracts.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Notobasis syriaca 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.
