Spiny golden star
Pallenis spinosa
Family · Asteraceae · Irritating
Irritant
The yellow daisy ringed by rigid star-shaped bracts that prick once the flower dries. It fills southern verges in early summer and stays standing, dry and spiny, until the next winter.
Where it grows
Roadsides and waste ground · Fields and pasture · Scrubland · Montado
Also known asspiny starwort
In flower
How to tell it
A small yellow head at the centre of a star of long, pointed green bracts, much larger than the petals. On drying those bracts harden and stab. The whole plant is rough and hairy.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
No relevant use. Worth recognising so as not to grab it once dry, which is when it really pricks.