Carlina onopordifolia
Our carlinas, planted on the plantation, fruited. The fruit themselves may not be very spectacular, because they are what botanists call „achenes”, i.e. fruit that do not crack, containing a single seed, having a leathery or woody pericarp, loosely surrounding the seed.
However, the amount of fruit that one flower produces is impressive, and each fruit is decorated with a delicate down of regular shapes. The radially arranged individual fibers form a sort of an umbrella. It is a pappus, which is a kind of a aeriform apparatus that allows the fruit to be carried by the wind over long distances. In nature, however, only a few seeds reach places where new plants can grow.
The carlina grows only on shallow rendsinas formed on the slopes of carbonate hills which face south-west. So we help nature. The collected seeds will be used to grow young seedlings under greenhouse conditions, which will be planted in natural places to ensure the survival of this rare and protected plant in Ponidzie.