The Scale Bar Plant

The scale bar (Centaurea calcitrapa) is an annual or biennial plant that belongs to the composite family (Compositae or Asteraceae). It is a plant of dry food and calcareous soil. The plant is native to Europe but has also spread in North-America. In the Netherlands, the plant in southern Limburg. The species is on the Dutch Red List of plants as very rare and very much reduced.


The plant is 1915-1960 cm high and forms a rosette. The rising and twisting stems are almost bare, furrowed and branched shrub. The lower leaves are broken and some parts of the upper leaves are lanceolate or linear and have a prickly point. At flowering, the lower leaves have died.


Trip lime blooms from July to September, with pink or purple, sometimes white flowers. Inflorescence a head. The flower heads are 6-8 mm in diameter and 1.5 to 2 cm long. The carpels have a straight top, above the foot are slightly waisted and have above a prickly appendix. At the top of the outer carpels about a 1 to 2.5 cm long spine.


The fruit is 2.5 to 3.5 mm long, white or brown nut without gestreepd Pappus. On the fruit contains an ant sandwich.



Source: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalketrip


See also: International Flower Delivery, Florist