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Biennial or perennial, usually glabrous herbs (our species) from stout taproots or rootstocks; stems (when present) prostrate to erect, simple or branched, the leaves mostly petiolate, entire to lobed or divided, usually spinose, the petiole sheathing; inflorescence of solitary to numerous involucrate heads, the flowers all perfect, white, blue, or purple, each subtended by an involucel (floral) bractlet, the petals with an inflexed, lobed to fimbriate apex, the calyx prominent, often spinescent; stylopodium lacking, the styles shorter than to exceeding the calyx, a carpophore lacking; fruit subterete, scaly or tuberculate, the ribs obsolete, the commissure broad, the vittae inconspicuous; seed subterete, its face flat or slightly concave.
Glabrous annual, biennial or perennial herbs. Lvs simple, entire, pinnate or palmately lobed, usually spinous. Fls sessile in capitula, these solitary or in cymes or racemes; bracts in one or more series subtending the head, usually spinous; bracteoles subtending fls usually spinous, entire or 3-fid. Petals white to purple or greenish, regular, variously lobed or fringed, inflexed; calyx teeth evident, usually acute, rarely spinescent, > petals. Fr. ovoid to subglobose, scarcely flattened laterally, variously covered with scales, spines or tubercles; commissure broad; ribs obscure; vittae usually solitary.
Erect herbs, often spinescent. Leaves spiny dentate, entire, lobed or dissected. Flowers in heads or compact spikes, all bracteolate. Calyx teeth rigid, acute or prickly. Petals erect, white, with inflexed tip, scarcely imbricate. Disk flat, raised margin encircling the styles. Styles from the base filiform. Fruit ellipsoid, nearly cylindrical, commissure broad; mericarps with subprominent ribs, inner surface subconcave; vittae inconspicuous or 0; carpophore deciduous.
Fls nectariferous, subsessile, bracted, in dense heads subtended by foliaceous bracts. Calyx-teeth prominent, persistent, rigid; petals notched, inflexed. Fr. ovoid to obovoid, covered in tubercles or scales; vittae 5; commissure broad; mericarps obscurely ribbed. Perennial herbs with mainly radical lvs; teeth us. pungent. Widespread genus of some 220 spp.; the N.Z. sp. also in Tasmania and Australia.
Infl composed of dense heads, each head subtended by bracts, each fl by a bractlet; fr globose to obovoid, not or scarcely compressed, variously covered with scales or tubercles, the ribs obsolete; stylopodium and carpophore wanting; sep usually conspicuous; pet white to purple; biennial or perennial, often spiny herbs. 200, widespread.
