Emex spinosa(L.) Campd.

lesser jackspiny threecornerjack

WFO wfo-0000667149 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Emex spinosa, photographed by Duarte Frade
fig. a Duarte Frade, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-26 / obs. 190930572
Emex spinosa, photographed by Duarte Frade
fig. b Duarte Frade, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 189717654
Emex spinosa, photographed by Millie Basden
fig. c Millie Basden, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 189136926
Emex spinosa, photographed by Millie Basden
fig. d Millie Basden, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 187684061
Emex spinosa, photographed by Santiago Martín-Bravo
fig. e Santiago Martín-Bravo, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 171568859
Emex spinosa, photographed by Amy
fig. f Amy, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 130792212
Emex spinosa, photographed by Eleftherios Katsillis
fig. g Eleftherios Katsillis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 120402342
Emex spinosa, photographed by Eleftherios Katsillis
fig. h Eleftherios Katsillis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 115811127

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 40 botanical countries

Regions where Emex spinosa is native: Algeria, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Madeira, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Selvagens, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tunisia, Western Sahara, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Gulf States, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon-Syria, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sinai, Türkiye, Yemen, Baleares, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain AlgeriaChadEgyptEritreaEthiopiaLibyaMaliMauritaniaMoroccoNigerSelvagensSomaliaSudan-South SudanTunisiaWestern SaharaCyprusEast Aegean Is.Gulf StatesIranIraqKuwaitLebanon-SyriaOmanPalestineSaudi ArabiaSinaiTürkiyeYemenGreeceItalyKritiPortugalSiciliaSpain Canary Is.Cape VerdeMadeiraBalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Emex spinosa, 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. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Canary Is. CNY
Cape Verde CVI
Chad CHA
Egypt EGY
Eritrea ERI
Ethiopia ETH
Libya LBY
Madeira MDR
Mali MLI
Mauritania MTN
Morocco MOR
Niger NGR
Selvagens SEL
Socotra SOC
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tunisia TUN
Western Sahara WSA
Cyprus CYP ASIA-TEMPERATE
East Aegean Is. EAI
Gulf States GST
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Kuwait KUW
Lebanon-Syria LBS
Oman OMA
Palestine PAL
Saudi Arabia SAU
Sinai SIN
Türkiye TUR
Yemen YEM
Baleares BAL EUROPE
Greece GRC
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
Portugal POR
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA

Not drawn on the map: Socotra. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

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.

Flowering 78 in flower of 190 examined

Peak flowering in Jan. Each bar is the share of Emex spinosa observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 78 of 190 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 6 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 4 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.

  • Centopodium spinosum (L.) Burch.
  • Rumex glaber Forssk.
  • Rumex spinosus L.
  • Vibo spinosa (L.) Medik.

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. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. 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.