Scolymus maculatus is a spiny annual plant in the family Asteraceae, native to the Mediterranean region in southern Europe, southwest Asia, and northern Africa, and also the Canary Islands. It has pinnately incised prickly leaves and prickly wings along the stems, both with a white marginal vein. The yellow flowerheads stand solitary or with a few together at the tip to the stems, and subtended by more than five leaflike bracts. The plant is known as scolyme taché in French, cardogna macchiata in Italian, cardo borriquero in Spanish, and escólimo-malhado in Portuguese, חוח עקוד in Hebrew and سنارية حولية in Arabic. In English it is called spotted golden thistle or spotted oyster thistle. Description Scolymus maculatus is a spiny herbaceous annual, biennials or perennials of up to 1½ m high, that contains a milky latex. It has twenty chromosomes (2n=20). Root, stem and leaves The stems carry uninterrupted spiny wings along their lengths. The wavy leaves are approximately ovate in shape, mostly 9–14 cm long, with prominent white veins which are pinnately divided, alternately set along the stems, and have a dentate margin tipped with spines and a white vein all around their outline. Inflorescence, flowers and fruits The flowerheads are seated at the end of the stem or in the limbs of the higher leaves, and are arranged in roundish clusters, which are subtended by more than five leaflike bracts. Each flowerhead is circled by an involucre that consists of many spine-tipped bracts of usually between 11 and 18 mm long, in several rows, the outer papery and shorter than the inner ones, which are leaflike in consistency and have a white papery margin. These surround the common floral base (or receptacle), which is mostly 7–11 mm in diameter conical in shape and is set with ovate papery bracts called chaff or paleae. Inplanted are dorsally compressed cypselas, each enclosed by a palea, the outer rows higher than the inner ones. There are no pappus bristles on top of the cypselas. The yellow, strap-like corolla is usually 17–24 mm long, ends in five teeth, and carries some black hairs on the tube. Characters common to all Asteraceae Like in all Asteraceae, the pentameric flowers have anthers that are fused together forming a tube through which the style grows. The style picks up the pollen on hairs along its length and splits into two style branches at its tip. These