Carduus crispus
| Carduus crispus | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Asterales |
| Family: | Asteraceae |
| Genus: | Carduus |
| Species: | C. crispus |
| Binomial name | |
| Carduus crispus L. | |
Carduus crispus, the curly plumeless thistle[1] or welted thistle,[2] is a biennial herb in the daisy family Asteraceae. It is native to Europe and Asia.
Distribution
The plant is found from Southwestern Europe, through Scandinavia and Siberia, to Eastern Asia.[3][4]
Uses
Wildlife
The species and genus is a favorite food plant of caterpillars of the painted lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui), which derives its specific epithet, cardui, from their preference for Carduus thistles. It is also used by bees for honey production.
Medicinal
Extracts from this plant have been found to have anti-cancer properties,[medical citation needed] the main one of which being crispine B.
It is said to hold restorative and anodyne properties in its roots.[medical citation needed]
Invasive species
Carduus crispus is an introduced species in North America, and a noxious weed in several U.S. states, including West Virginia
| This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Metasyntactic variable, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. |