View source for Cnicus

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| name = ''LATINNAME''   <!--- replace LATINNAME with the actual latin name -->
| common_names =     <!--- if multiple, list all, if none, leave blank -->
| growth_habit = ?   <!--- tree, shrub, herbaceous, vine, etc -->
| high = ?   <!--- 1m (3 ft) -->
| wide =     <!--- 65cm (25 inches) -->
| origin = ?   <!--- Mexico, S America, S Europe, garden, etc -->
| poisonous =     <!--- indicate parts of plants which are known/thought to be poisonous -->
| lifespan =     <!--- perennial, annual, etc -->
| exposure = ?   <!--- full sun, part-sun, semi-shade, shade, indoors, bright filtered (you may list more than 1) -->
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| features =     <!--- flowers, fragrance, fruit, naturalizes, invasive -->
| hardiness =     <!--- frost sensitive, hardy, 5°C (40°F), etc -->
| bloom =     <!--- seasons which the plant blooms, if it is grown for its flowers -->
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| sunset_zones =     <!--- eg. 8, 9, 12-24, not available -->
| color = IndianRed
| image = Upload.png   <!--- Freesia.jpg -->
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| image_caption =     <!--- eg. Cultivated freesias -->
| regnum = Plantae  <!--- Kingdom -->
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Cnicus (Latin name of Safflower, early applied to thistles). Compositae. Blessed Thistle. A monotypic genus allied to Centaurea, and distinguished from it botanically by its heads being quite sessile and surrounded just below by bristly leaves. Its habit in the garden is very different from the bachelor's button, being thistle -like, and more interesting than ornamental. A hardy annual low-growing herb, rough, branching and pilose. Once thought to counteract poison. Culture easy. Fit for wild gardens and rockeries.

C. rhaphilepis, Hemal., S. Mex., has recently been cult. abroad. It is described as a handsome plant with deeply cut spiny-toothed lvs. about 2 ft. long, gray-tomentose beneath: st. colored, much branched: fl.-heads 3-3½ in. long, the involucral bracts scarlet and spine-tipped; fls. scarcely exserted, the filaments carmine. Under the above definition of Cnicus, this plant must fall in another genus. It has been placed in Carduus by E. L. Greene, as C. raphilepis- N. Taylor.
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