Israel native plants: Slender safflower

Carthamus tenuis, Kentrophyllum tenue, Slender safflower,
Hebrew: קורטם דק, Arabic: قرطم , عصفر

Scientific name:   Carthamus tenuis (Boiss. & Blanche) Borum
Synonym name:   Kentrophyllum tenue Boiss. & Blanche, Carthamus gracilis Čelak.
Common name:   Slender safflower
Hebrew name:   קורטם דק
Arabic name:   قرطم , عصفر
Plant Family:   Compositae / Asteraceae, מורכבים


Location: Netanya, the Dora rain pool
Life form:   Therophyte, annual
Spinescence:   Leaves, bracts
Stems:   30-180 cm. herbage glabrous to ± glandular and/or ± tomentose; Stems usually erect , branched distally or throughout
Leaves:   Alternate, rosette, dissected once, dentate or serrate, spinescent
Flowers:   Light blue, bracts spinescent
Fruits / Pods:   Cypselae oblong to obpyramidal, ± 4-angled; Pappus twice as long as achenes
Flowering Period:   May, June, July, August, September
Habitat:   Batha, Phrygana
Distribution:   Mediterranean Woodlands and Shrublands, Semi-steppe shrublands, Shrub-steppes, Deserts and extreme deserts, Montane vegetation of Mt. Hermon
Chorotype:   Mediterranean
Summer shedding:   Ephemeral


Location: Netanya, the Dora rain pool

Derivation of the botanical name:

Carthamus, from the Arabic verb qurtum [قرطم] “dye”, in reference to the usage of safflower flowers for textile dyeing.

tenuis, “slender, thin”.
Kentrophyllum, κέντρον, kentron, a point (from kentein, to prick); phyllon, φυλλον, leaf, foliage; pointed leaves.
gracilis, graceful, slender.
The Yiddish name zeyfblum [זײפֿבלום] means “soap-flower” (zeyf [זײף] “soap” und blum [בלום] “flower”).

  • The standard author abbreviation Boiss is used to indicate Pierre Edmond Boissier (1810–1885), a Swiss botanist, explorer and mathematician.
  • The standard author abbreviation Blanche is used to indicate Emanuel Blanche (1824-1908), a French botanist.
  • The standard author abbreviation Bornm. is used to indicate Joseph Friedrich Nicolaus Bornmüller (1862–1948), a German botanist.
  • The standard author abbreviation Čelak. is used to indicate Ladislav Josef Čelakovský (1834 – 1902), a Czech botanist.