THE BULGARIAN FLORA ONLINE
THE BULGARIAN FLORA ONLINE
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Bulgarian Thistle
Cirsium bulgaricum DC.
The species is PROTECTED in Bulgaria by the Biodiversity Act - it is prohibited to "picking, collecting, cutting, uprooting or any other manner of destruction of specimens in their natural range in the wild", as well as "possession, keeping, movement, transport, export, trade and offering for sale or exchange of specimens taken in the wild". These bans apply to "all stages of life of the plants"1.
Listed in the Red Data Book of Bulgaria to the category "Endangered"2.
Sudden changes in the plant communities with human impact; restricted distribution in Bulgaria3.
Stem 60–100 cm high.
Leaves pinnatisect, regularly covering the whole stem, arachnoidanate beneath; lobes lanceolate to narrowly triangular, with rigid apical, 3–10(16) mm long spines.
Capitula 1–10, with 2–6(9) lanceolate to narrowly triangular subtending leaves.
Involucre 24–35 mm long, 22–35 mm wide, ovate-globose, sparingly arachnid to glabrous.
Outer involucral bracts suberect; middle erecto-patent, slightly widened to the spinose-serrulate apex, with rigid, apical, 1–3.5 mm long spine.
Florets purple.
Achenes 5–6 mm long. Pappus 19–22 mm long.
Flowering VI–VIII, fr. VIII–X.
Insect pollination.
Reproduction by seeds4.
Anthropophyte. Occurs in the periphery of degraded forests of Quercus cerris and Q. frainetto, in ruderal places, along roads and settlements. Populations are mosaic and with good reproductive potential5.
Black Sea coast (southern), Strandzha Mts; up to 300 m meters altitude6.
Bulgaria, Turkey (Turkey-in-Europe and Western Anatolia)7.
1 Bulgarian Biodiversity Act in english.
1 Svetlana Bancheva. 2015. In: Red Data Book of the Republic of Bulgaria. Volume 1 - Plants & Fungi.
2 Svetlana Bancheva, 2015.
3 Svetlana Bancheva, 2015.
4 Svetlana Bancheva, 2015.
5 Svetlana Bancheva, 2015.
6 Svetlana Bancheva, 2015.
7 Svetlana Bancheva, 2015.
The theory of evolution is a lie!