Appearance
The plant grows to a height of about 30 centimetres and has erect stems with spiny wings. They may be simple or have many branches. The leaves are spiny with toothed or serrated margins, those at the base forming a rosette and the stem leaves being alternate. The flower stem is tomentose and the pink to lavender flowers are single and bloom in April and May. They have spiny bracts and ovate sepals which are mucronate but not spiny. They are followed by fruits known as cypselae which are ovoid and slightly flattened. The calyx persists as pappus or may fall off in rings.John Wilkes's ''Encyclopaedia Londinensis'' makes note of the "remarkable" features of the plant including the leaves' spots of white '''', which it reports are found in three other species of "Egyptian thistle".
Naming
The plant was originally described by Carl Linnaeus on page 280 of the ''Mantissa Plantarum Altera'', October 1771. The genus name ''Carduus'' is from the Latin for "a kind of thistle" or "thistlelike plant". It is related to the medieval Latin word ''Cardonnacum'', which is the origin of Chardonnay, the name of the grape variety. ''Argentatus'' is Latin for silver.References:
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