Willow-leaved carline
Carlina salicifolia
Family · Asteraceae · Harmless
The island carline, which unlike its mainland cousins barely pricks: narrow leaves like a willow's and heads of golden bracts that shine on sunlit escarpments.
Walls and rocks · Scrubland · Dunes and sand · Uplands
Also known asMadeira carline thistle
How to tell it
A subshrub with a woody base, with narrow elongated leaves, green above and whitish beneath, the edge barely spiny. Heads with a crown of dry, narrow, golden yellow bracts radiating around a brown disc, as in mainland carlines. Range: Madeira and the Canaries.
What it is confused with
Spanish carline thistle
Carlina hispanica
The golden crowns are the same. The mainland one has deeply cut, well-armed leaves; the Madeiran has narrow entire leaves, almost spineless. And they do not overlap geographically.
Open sheet →What it is for
No use. As in mainland carlines, the bracts open in sun and close in damp, which makes it a hygrometer that stands for months after drying.