Carduus nutans

Nodding Thistle ( Carduus nutans )

The Nodding Thistle ( Carduus nutans ), also called Bisamdistel, is a flowering plant in the sunflower family ( Asteraceae).

Description

The Nodding Thistle is a branched, two perennial herbaceous plant that reaches the plant height of 30 to 100 cm. The change-constant leaves have a heavily reinforced blade edge and are distributed both in a basal rosette and on the stems. The stem leaves form "wings" on the stem.

The Nodding Thistle is striking in its 2-6 cm wide, almost spherical inflorescences. The bracts above the egg-shaped flowers reason are constricted and then usually provided with a rigid, recurved spike tip. The bloom conditions contained over 100 tubular flowers. The tubular flowers smell sweet. The five purple petals are fused into a tube about 1.5 cm long. The five stamens usually do not project beyond the corolla tube. The on top of pink to purple pen protrudes beyond the corolla significantly.

The achenes are ribbed, about 4 mm long and have a pappus.

Ecology

When Nodding Thistle is a half- rosette plant, that is, in the first year it forms from a rosette, in the second year an inflorescence stem and after fruiting dies from it.

The spike tips of the leaves serve as condensation points for additional water production in dry locations as well as a defense mechanism against grazing animals. The latter may be primarily due to the low productive power at very dry sites of importance.

The nectar rises in the 1 cm long corolla tube. There is abundant insects visit, especially long-tongued bumblebees and butterflies of. Hoverflies feed on the pollen. The flowering period is from July to September.

The achenes have a pappus hygroscopic: it is Schirmchenflieger, water Hafter ( in wet weather ). The spread is also possible by ants or in processing of the fruit stands by goldfinches. The fruits are very rich in oil. Fruit ripening is from September to October.

All thistles are important food crops for seed eaters, they are therefore also quite " useful " ruderal and recommended for wild plants gardens.

This particularly beautiful and showy thistle often spreads to rough grazing, when the livestock for the area is too high. Then the rest of the plants are grazed deep and often the ground wounded. This creates ideal conditions for the growth of thistles, which disdains the cattle.

Occurrence

The Nodding Thistle is particularly widespread in the Mediterranean.

One finds the Nodding Thistle fairly common in open Weed- companies in ways rubble and loading areas, on slopes, in overstaffed rough grazing on summer-warm, mostly calcareous soils. After Ellenberg it is a light plant, a nitrogen pointer and a Verbandscharakterart the Scottish Thistle companies ( Scottish Thistle Onopordum acanthium L.).

In Austria the real thing Nick Ring thistle is considered in the Pannonian area as home and there occurs scattered on. In the rest of Austria it is naturalized and rare.

System

The species name Carduus nutans was first published in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus in Species Plantarum, p 821. Carduus nutans L. A synonym for is Carduus phyllolepis Willk ..

The widespread Carduus nutans is regarding the size of the inflorescences and the development of the bracts and their hair extremely rich in form.

There are many sub-species of Carduus nutans:

• Ordinary Nodding Thistle ( Carduus nutans L. subsp. Nutans )
• Alpine Nodding Thistle ( Carduus nutans subsp. Alpicola ( Gillot ) Chass. & Arenes )
• Carduus nutans subsp. falcatoincurvus P.H.Davis
• Carduus nutanss subsp. granatensis ( Willk. ) O.Bolòs & Vigo
• Carduus nutans subsp. leiophyllus ( Petrović ) Stoj. & Stef.
• Carduus nutans subsp. maurus ( Emb & Maire ) Greuter
• Carduus nutans subsp. micropterus ( Borbás ) Hayek
• Carduus nutans subsp. numidicus ( Coss. & Durieu ) Arenes
• Carduus nutans subsp. perspinosus ( Fiori) Arenes
• Breitschuppige Nodding Thistle ( Carduus nutans subsp. Platylepis ( Rchb. & Saut. ) Nyman )
• Carduus nutans subsp. platypus ( Lange) Greuter
• Carduus nutans subsp. scabrisquamus Arenes
• Carduus nutans subsp. siculus ( Franco) Greuter
• Carduus nutans subsp. subacaulis Arenes
• Carduus nutans subsp. taygeteus ( Boiss. & Heldr. ) Hayek
• Carduus nutans subsp. trojanus P.H.Davis

General

The Nodding Thistle in 2008 was the flower of the year.

Swell

• Distribution map for Germany. In: FloraWeb.
• Nodding Thistle. In: FloraWeb.de.
• Carduus nutans. In: Info Flora ( The national data and information center of the Swiss Flora).
• Distribution on the northern hemisphere of Eric Hultén, Magnus Fries: Atlas of North European vascular plants. 1986, ISBN 3-87429-263-0 Floran in the virtuella. ( swedish ).