Urospermum picroides(L.) Scop. ex F.W.Schmidt

prickly golden-fleeceprickly goldenfleece

WFO wfo-0000024742 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Urospermum picroides, photographed by James C. Davis
fig. a James C. Davis, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-05-31 / obs. 202325835
Urospermum picroides, photographed by James C. Davis
fig. b James C. Davis, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 202325702
Urospermum picroides, photographed by Christian Berg
fig. c Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 198324581
Urospermum picroides, photographed by Tim Johnson
fig. d Tim Johnson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 197550871
Urospermum picroides, photographed by Josep Gesti
fig. e Josep Gesti, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 192953734
Urospermum picroides, photographed by Yves Bas
fig. f Yves Bas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203168634
Urospermum picroides, photographed by Yves Bas
fig. g Yves Bas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 186418716
Urospermum picroides, photographed by Tim Johnson
fig. h Tim Johnson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 186416633

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 Urospermum picroides is native: Algeria, Azores, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Egypt, Libya, Madeira, Morocco, Sudan-South Sudan, Tunisia, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Gulf States, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon-Syria, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sinai, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Yemen, Albania, Austria, Baleares, Bulgaria, Corse, France, Greece, Italy, Kriti, NW. Balkan Pen., Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Türkiye-in-Europe AlgeriaEgyptLibyaMoroccoSudan-South SudanTunisiaCyprusEast Aegean Is.Gulf StatesIranIraqKuwaitLebanon-SyriaOmanPalestineSaudi ArabiaSinaiTranscaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanYemenAlbaniaAustriaBulgariaCorseFranceGreeceItalyKritiNW. Balkan Pen.PortugalSiciliaSpainTürkiye-in-Europe AzoresCanary Is.Cape VerdeMadeiraBalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Urospermum picroides, 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
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
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
Yemen YEM
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baleares BAL
Bulgaria BUL
Corse COR
France FRA
Greece GRC
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Portugal POR
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Azores AZO
Canary Is. CNY
Cape Verde CVI
Egypt EGY
Libya LBY
Madeira MDR
Morocco MOR
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
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.

Flowering 480 in flower of 822 examined

Peak flowering in Apr. Each bar is the share of Urospermum picroides 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. 480 of 822 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 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 16 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.

  • Arnopogon asper (L.) Willd.
  • Arnopogon capensis (Jacq.) Willd.
  • Arnopogon picroides (L.) Willd.
  • Daumailia spinulosa Arènes
  • Tragopogon aculeatus Moench
  • Tragopogon asper L.
  • Tragopogon capensis Jacq.
  • Tragopogon picridoides (L.) Willd.
  • Tragopogon picroides L.
  • Tragopogon sonchifolius Salisb.
  • Tragopogonodes picrodes Kuntze
  • Urospermum asperum (L.) DC.
  • Urospermum capense (Jacq.) Spreng.
  • Urospermum picroides var. asperum (L.) Duby
  • Urospermum picroides var. laeve Maire
  • Urospermum picroides var. picroides

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.