Silybum Vaill. ex Adans.

Herbs, erect, glabrous. Leaves alternate, sinuate-lobed, spinescent. Heads homogamous, large, subglobose, solitary, terminal, nodding. Flowers purple, bisexual, similar, fertile. Involucral bracts many-seriate, broad, fimbriated with spines below, terminating in spreading, rigid spines above. Receptacle flat, densely bristly. Filaments glabrous, united into a sheath below; anther bases sagittate. Style subentire. Achenes obovoid-oblong, compressed, glabrous. Pappus hairs many-seriate, unequal, subpaleaceous, united at base into a deciduous ring.

Mediterranean region; 2 species, 1 in India.

List of Lower Taxa