Thapsia asclepiumL.

WFO wfo-0000409877 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Thapsia asclepium, photographed by Eleftherios Katsillis
fig. a Eleftherios Katsillis, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-05-12 / obs. 130343497
Thapsia asclepium, photographed by Eleftherios Katsillis
fig. b Eleftherios Katsillis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 130340932
Thapsia asclepium, photographed by Eleftherios Katsillis
fig. c Eleftherios Katsillis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 115656885
Thapsia asclepium, photographed by Eleftherios Katsillis
fig. d Eleftherios Katsillis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 130343453
Thapsia asclepium, photographed by Eleftherios Katsillis
fig. e Eleftherios Katsillis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 130340733
Thapsia asclepium, photographed by Eleftherios Katsillis
fig. f Eleftherios Katsillis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 115656914
Thapsia asclepium, photographed by Eleftherios Katsillis
fig. g Eleftherios Katsillis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 130340775
Thapsia asclepium, photographed by Eleftherios Katsillis
fig. h Eleftherios Katsillis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 130343548

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 6 botanical countries

Regions where Thapsia asclepium is native: East Aegean Is., Albania, Greece, Italy, Sicilia, Spain East Aegean Is.AlbaniaGreeceItalySiciliaSpain
Native distribution of Thapsia asclepium, 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
Albania ALB EUROPE
Greece GRC
Italy ITA
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
East Aegean Is. EAI ASIA-TEMPERATE

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 12 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.

  • Elaeoselinum apulia (Mill.) M.Hiroe
  • Elaeoselinum asclepium Bertol.
  • Elaeoselinum asclepium subsp. millefolium (Boiss.) García-Martín & Silvestre
  • Elaeoselinum asclepium var. hispanicum (Lange) O.Bolòs, Font Quer & Vigo
  • Elaeoselinum hispanicum (Lange) Pau ex Martinez
  • Elaeoselinum meoides var. hispanica Lange
  • Elaeoselinum meoides var. hispanicum Lange
  • Elaeoselinum millefolium Boiss.
  • Laserpitium asclepium Calest.
  • Laserpitium millefolium (Boiss.) Calest.
  • Thapsia apulia Mill.
  • Thapsia asclepiadea St.-Lag.

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.