Thistle Flower Malta. Xewk Tal-Madonna Ħaxixa Tal-Kanali. 13102016 The flowers are similar in shape to those of other thistles.
Malta starthistle is an annual that begins as a basal rosette of leaves then grows stems up to 3 feet tall though often shorter with spiny yellow owerheads that resemble yellow starthistle Centaurea solstitialis a Class B noxious weed. I did rouge out a patch only to find 20 or more patches down the highway. The flower buds are well armored with nasty spines.
Centaurea melitensis Common Names.
Flowers between February and April. Malta thistle Maltese star-thistle tocalote cockspur thistle yellow star-thistle Napa thistle Centaurea melitensis is an introduced invasive winter annual plant. Beautiful shot of humped crab spider and bee on a yellow Mediterranean Sow Thistle flower in Malta. It flowers through the summer producing seed in.