Silybum

Milk thistle ( Silybum marianum )

The Marian thistle ( Silybum ) are a genus of flowering plants in the subfamily Carduoideae from the sunflower family ( Asteraceae).

Description

In Silybum species are upright, one-to two perennial herbaceous plants that reach heights of growth from 15 to 300 cm. Your change-constant leaves are serrated strong thorny at the edge. The basal leaves and lower stem leaves are stalked, the middle and upper stem leaves sessile.

The large bloom conditions are individually and terminally. There are four to six rows of bracts present. The Hüllblattanhängsel are large, leaf-like, roundish to lanceolate, dentate spiny at the edge and terminating in a long spine. The bottom of the basket is covered with dense hair. The baskets contain only 25 to 100 radiärsymmetrische tubular flowers; they are purplish pink to. The stamens are fused into a tube.

The achenes are not ribbed. The double row pappus consists of long outer and inner short, interconnected at the base, rough hair.

Systematics and distribution

The genus Silybum includes only two types:

• Silybum eburneum Coss. & Durieu, native to Spain, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.
• Milk thistle ( Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn. , Syn. Carduus Marian L.), distributed from the Mediterranean region eastwards to Pakistan. It is grown as an ornamental and medicinal plant and is now naturalized in parts of North America, among others, and South America. As fickle naturalizing it also occurs in many countries of Central and Northern Europe.

Swell

• David J. Keil: Silybum. In: Flora of North America Editorial Committee ( eds.): Flora of North America North of Mexico. Volume 19: Magnoliophyta: unranked, part 6: Asteraceae, part 1 ( Mutisieae - Anthemideae ), Oxford University Press, New York / Oxford et al 2006, ISBN 0-19-530563-9, p 164, online ( engl. ).