Carduus spachianusDurieu

WFO wfo-0000014104 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Carduus spachianus, photographed by Aissa Djamel Filali
fig. a Aissa Djamel Filali, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2021-04-09 / obs. 120587344
Carduus spachianus, photographed by Karim Haddad
fig. b Karim Haddad, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 117507739
Carduus spachianus, photographed by Mehdi Chetibi
fig. c Mehdi Chetibi, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 120627276
Carduus spachianus, photographed by Karim Haddad
fig. d Karim Haddad, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 121594555
Carduus spachianus, photographed by Karim Haddad
fig. e Karim Haddad, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 120997365
Carduus spachianus, photographed by Karim Haddad
fig. f Karim Haddad, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 114942989
Carduus spachianus, photographed by Karim Haddad
fig. g Karim Haddad, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 114943659
Carduus spachianus, photographed by Karim Haddad
fig. h Karim Haddad, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 114943480

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 4 botanical countries

Regions where Carduus spachianus is native: Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia AlgeriaLibyaMoroccoTunisia
Native distribution of Carduus spachianus, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Libya LBY
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 15 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Carduus atlantis Humbert & Maire
  • Carduus atlantis subsp. atlantis
  • Carduus atlantis subsp. megalatlanticus (Emb.) Maire
  • Carduus atlantis subsp. megalatlanticus (Maire) Emb.
  • Carduus duriaei Boiss. & Reut.
  • Carduus megalatlanticus Emb.
  • Carduus megalatlanticus Emb. ex Maire
  • Carduus meonanthus subsp. duriaei (Boiss. & Reut.) Quézel & Santa
  • Carduus meonanthus subsp. spachianus (Durieu) Maire
  • Carduus pteracanthus Durieu
  • Carduus pteracanthus var. erythrolepis Durieu
  • Carduus pteracanthus var. leptocladus Batt.
  • Carduus pteracanthus var. pteracanthus
  • Carduus pteracanthus var. submyriacanthus Maire
  • Carduus pteracanthus var. tunetanus Murb.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.