Spiny golden star
Pallenis spinosa
Family · Asteraceae · Irritating
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.
Roadsides and waste ground · Fields and pasture · Scrubland · Montado
Also known asspiny starwort
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.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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