Slender safflower

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Slender safflower is annual herb belongs to the Asteraceae family in the order Asterales. The genus Carthamus is native to Europe, North Africa, and parts of Asia. Leaves are alternate, rosette, dissected once, dentate or serrate, spinescent. Stem reaches height up to 180 cm, herbage glabrous to granular or tomentose. It usually erect, branched distally or throughout. Flowers are light blue, bracts spinescent, Flowers, and blooming from May to September. Fruits are cypselae oblong to obpyradmidal, They are Heterosporic and heterocarpic in terms of seed homogeneity.

Ecology: This plant grows in habitats like roadsides, sandy soil,batha, and phrygana. This plant is glycophyte in terms of salt resistance, approximately synanthropic,Spinescence in leaves and bracts, and it is not succulent flora. This plant follows the Mediterranean chototype.

Distrbutions in Palestine: The distribution of the plant in Palestine includes the Mediterranean Woodlands and Shrublands, Semi-steppe shrublands, Shrub-steppes, Deserts and extreme deserts. Widely seen in all parts of Palestine within the different habitats.

Cool Facts: Carthamus, from the Arabic verb qurtum [قرطم] "dye", in reference to the usage of safflower flowers for textile dyeing. tenuis, "slender, thin.

IUCN red list status: not evaluated

Local status: least concern