The Purple star thistle or Caltrop is a plant native of Europe. The Caltrop has spiny, pink-purple flower heads. It can be annual or biennial and has been naturalized in America. The common name "Caltrop" comes from the resemblance of the spiny flower head to the caltrop, an ancient instrument of war. Scientific classification or biological classification is how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ... Divisions Land plants (embryophytes) Non-vascular plants (bryophytes) Hepatophyta - liverworts Anthocerophyta - hornworts Bryophyta - mosses Vascular plants (tracheophytes) Lycopodiophyta - clubmosses Equisetophyta - horsetails Pteridophyta - true ferns Psilotophyta - whisk ferns Ophioglossophyta - adderstongues Seed plants (spermatophytes) †Pteridospermatophyta - seed ferns Pinophyta - conifers Cycadophyta - cycads Ginkgophyta - ginkgo Gnetophyta - gnetae Magnoliophyta - flowering plants Adiantum pedatum (a fern... Classes Magnoliopsida - Dicots Liliopsida - Monocots The flowering plants (also angiosperms or Magnoliophyta) are one of the major groups of modern plants, comprising those that produce seeds in specialized reproductive organs called flowers, where the ovulary or carpel is enclosed. ... Orders see text Dicotyledons or dicots are flowering plants whose seed contains two embryonic leaves or cotyledons. ... Families See text The Asterales are an order of dicotyledonous flowering plants which include the composite family Asteraceae (sunflowers and daisies) and its related families. ... Genera many, see list The aster or sunflower family (Family Asteraceae or, alternatively Family Compositae) is a taxon of dicotyledonous flowering plants. ... Species Around 350-500 species; see text Centaurea is a genus of about 350-500 species of herbaceous thistles and thistle-like flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, mostly native to the Old World. ... In biology, binomial nomenclature is a standard convention used for naming species. ... World map showing location of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ... America is used many different ways: America, or sometimes The Americas is the continents and islands between the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans together or collectively, usually subdivided into: North America Central America and the Caribbean South America The United States of America (USA) is often called America. ... An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers on a branch of a plant. ... Caltrop with hollow spikes to puncture self-sealing rubber tires Contemporary caltrop improvised from large nails welded together. ...
Purple starthistle (Centaureacalcitrapa) is an annual to perennial thistle with a mounding growth habit and heads of purple flowers surrounded by long, stout, sharp-pointed spines.
Mature plants are one to four feet high, densely and rigidly branched, and have numerous flowerheads (Roche and Roche 1990).
The species epithet calcitrapa is derived from the word caltrop, a weapon with protruding spikes used in ancient times to obstruct the movement of cavalry.
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