Eryngium campestre L.
Family: UMBELLIFERAE (APIACEAE)
Genus: Eryngium
Catalan common name: Card corredor. Card girgoler. Card panical. Centcaps. Panical.
Spanish common name: Cardo corredor.
Province distribution: Alacant. Balearic Islands. Barcelona. Castelló. Girona. Lleida. Tarragona. València.
Distribution in the islands: Mallorca. Menorca. Ibiza.
General distribution (Phytogeography): Some regions
Uses and properties: Aphrodisiac. Medicinal.
IUCN Category: Least concern
Flowering time: JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Life-forms: Geophyte.
Habitats: Cultivated fields, path and road sides, disturbed zones. Wild olive trees and other sclerophyllous shrublands. Juniperus phoenicea subsp. turbinata forest. Pine wood and shrubland with rosemary and thyme garigue. Garriques and cultivated fields.
Characteristics: The Eryngium genus is quite particular in the Umbelliferae family, because the flowers are grouped in inflorescences which look like capitula rather than umbels. Eryngium campestre lives in fields and in the clearings in garrigues (Mediterranean woodland) (Mediterranean woodlands). It has greatly divided leaves. The shape of the leaves is clearly different from Eryngium maritimum, which is the other species of this genus present in the Balearics, but these two plants never coexist anyway, since Eryngium maritimum always lives on beaches and dunes. Flowers at the end of spring.