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Electronic Flora of South Australia species Fact Sheet

Family: Asteraceae
Sonchus megalocarpus

Citation: J. Black, Fl. S. Aust. 661 (1929).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Dune thistle.

Description:
Perennial herb 15-60 cm high with woody creeping rhizomes; stems erect, branched, woody at the base, glabrous, grooved; lower leaves oblanceolate to elliptic, narrowed at the base, 5-10 cm long, 1.5-3.5 cm wide, entire to shallowly sinuate-pinnatifid with denticulate margins; upper leaves elliptic to lanceolate, acute, with small rounded auricles, 5-20 cm long, 1.5-6 cm wide, pinnatifid to pinnatipartite with triangular to ovate lobes, denticulate, coriaceous, glabrous, prominently net-veined.

Achenes flattened, elliptic-lanceolate, narrowed at the apex, 4.5-7.5 mm long, smooth, 3-ribbed on each face, one or more of the ribs often wing-like, with broadly winged glabrous margins, brown to buff; pappus 7-13 mm long, persistent.

Distribution:  On coastal sand dunes and cliffs.

  All Slates except the N.T.

Conservation status: native

Flowering time: Sept. — Feb.


SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: There is strong evidence from the anatomy of the pollen grains and the pappus (Lander, 1976) against the inclusion of this species in Embergeria. However, the quantitative differences in achene shape and degree of rib development do not by themselves justify its separation as the monotypic genus Actites. It is therefore retained in Sonchus, having close similarities to the species of Section Asperi, Subgenus Sonchus, in the classification of Boulos (1972).

Author: Not yet available


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