Acanos spina Scopoli, nom. illeg. superfl.

Herbs to 2 m tall. Stem erect, usually branched above, stout, glabrous or cobwebby; wings 2-5 cm wide, with triangular spiny lobes or teeth; spines yellowish brown, to 5 mm. Leaves glabrous or sparsely cobwebby to densely lanate. Basal leaves elliptic to broadly ovate, 10-30 × 4-15 cm, pinnately lobed or with unequal triangular teeth, teeth and lobes ending in yellowish brown spines. Middle and upper cauline leaves sessile, narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate, gradually smaller upward. Capitula solitary. Involucre globose to ovoid, ca. 5 cm in diam., cobwebby, glabrescent. Phyllaries abaxially gland-dotted, margin ciliate; outer and middle phyllaries ovate-subulate to lanceolate-subulate, 1.7-1.8 × 0.4-0.5 cm, leathery, apex narrowed into a pungent divaricate to reflexed spine; inner phyllaries lanceolate to linear, 2-3 × ca. 0.3 cm, straight, apex acuminate-subulate. Corolla purplish red to pink, ca. 2.4 cm, tube ca. 1.2 cm. Achene grayish black to gray, obovoid to narrowly ellipsoid, ca. 6 mm, 3-ribbed, transversely wrinkled, apical rim not prominent. Pappus bristles reddish, to 1.2 cm, scabrid. Fl. and fr. Jun-Sep. 2n = 34.

Mountain slopes, wastelands, by ditches; 400-1200 m. N Xinjiang [Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia, Europe].