Carthamus dentatus Vahl

Herb to 1 m high. Stems yellowish to straw-coloured, densely pilose with transparent to white glandular hairs 0.2–0.5 mm long; arachnoid and crisped multicellular hairs sparse or absent. Leaves pinnatilobed, grey-green above and below, densely glandular-hairy; marginal spines 3–7 mm long, yellow-brown distally. Capitula solitary, terminal on 5–25 cm long branches; involucre ovoid, 15–19 mm diam. at anthesis excluding patent bracts; outer involucral bracts 1.5–1.8 times length of inner; median bracts erect, 25–34 mm long, 7–9 mm wide at widest point, glandular, with fimbriate-pectinate terminal appendage, spinose at apex. Corolla pink-purple; tube 17–24 mm long; lobes 4–6 mm long. Anthers 5–7 mm long. Achenes obpyramidal, 4.5–5.8 mm long, grey. Pappus bristles 127–168, longest ones 13–16 mm long.

Often grows in pasture, in sandy-loam soils.