Centaurea benedicta
(L.) L. · speciesAt a glance
Sources14 archives
Databases and archives Centaurea benedicta's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation12 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility4 677 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI6 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics11 specimens↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinesequences↗
dukesphytochemcompounds
LOTUSNatural Products (Wikidata)compounds↗
NPASSNat. Product Activity & Species Sourcecompounds↗
GRIN TaxonomyUSDA-ARSdistribution & uses↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
CCDBChromosome Counts DB · Tel Aviv U.genome & karyotype↗
PloiDBPloidy Databasegenome & karyotype
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
Cnicus benedictus (St. Benedict's thistle, blessed thistle, holy thistle or spotted thistle), is a thistle-like plant in the family Asteraceae, native to the Mediterranean region, from Portugal north to southern France and east to Iran. It is known in other parts of the world, including parts of North America, as an introduced species and often a noxious weed. It is the sole species in the monotypic genus Cnicus. Other species once included in the genus have largely been reclassified to Cirsium, Carduus, and Centaurea. The related genus Notobasis is included in Cnicus by some botanists; it differs in slender, much spinier leaves, and purple flowers.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology18
Life cycle & reproduction11
Diet & foraging1
Habitat & environment13
Physiology & chemistry3
Other traits2
Compounds documented for Centaurea benedicta across natural-product and food-composition databases — not just the ~150 nutrients on a classic label ("nutritional dark matter").
Compound class profile5 classes
Documented compounds222 total
| Compound | Class | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| WATER | 867,000 ppm | DukesPhytochem | |
| CARBOHYDRATES | 760,000 ppm | DukesPhytochem | |
| FIBER(DIETARY) | 379,000 ppm | DukesPhytochem | |
| FAT | 271,000 ppm | DukesPhytochem | |
| MUCILAGE | 200,000 ppm | DukesPhytochem | |
| OLEIC-ACID | 186,480 ppm | DukesPhytochem | |
| PROTEIN | 175,000 ppm | DukesPhytochem | |
| ASH | 133,000 ppm | DukesPhytochem | |
| SUGARS | 120,000 ppm | DukesPhytochem | |
| FIBER | 98,000 ppm | DukesPhytochem |
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Centaurea benedicta has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
The complete instruction manual Centaurea benedicta carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Chromosomes & ploidyhow the DNA is packaged
2n is the full chromosome count in a normal body cell; n is a gamete (egg or sperm), which carries half. Ploidy is how many complete chromosome sets each cell holds — 2× (diploid) is typical for animals, while higher levels (polyploidy) are common in plants. Click any value below to see the underlying records and sources.
2n 2221×CCDB · iber-fl · CCDB · fl-europaea · CCDB · ipcn-api-dl +7
n 117×CCDB · iber-fl · CCDB · ipcn-api-dl · CCDB · book-ipcn73-74 +1
diploid inferred1×PloiDB · genus-scale
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil.
Record type4 677 records
Origin
Range
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions51 of 81 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| Berlin, DE | 51 |
| Riverside, US | 45 |
| San Diego, US | 43 |
| Santa Barbara, US | 40 |
| BDBClocation not on record | 39 |
| Chapel Hill, US | 33 |
| Moscow State Universitylocation not on record | 24 |
| Corvallis, US | 19 |
| QAUlocation not on record | 18 |
| MAlocation not on record | 18 |
| LDlocation not on record | 11 |
| Pullman, US | 11 |
| Davis, US | 10 |
| Jaén, ES | 8 |
| San Luis Obispo, US | 8 |
| Oskarshamn, SE | 6 |
| Jena Microbial Resource Collectionlocation not on record | 6 |
| US | 6 |
| Görlitz, DE | 6 |
| Mount Annan, AU | 5 |
| Porto Alegre, BR | 5 |
| Museo Entomologico de Leonlocation not on record | 4 |
| Wuzhou, CN | 4 |
| Brisbane, AU | 4 |
| Córdoba, ES | 4 |
| Claremont, US | 3 |
| Severin-McDaniel Insect Collectionlocation not on record | 3 |
| EL PASO, US | 3 |
| Laboratory of Palaeontologylocation not on record | 3 |
| Coimbra, PT | 3 |
| CASlocation not on record | 3 |
| Fundación Miguel Lillolocation not on record | 2 |
| BIO-UNIPIlocation not on record | 2 |
| Porrentruy, CH | 2 |
| Córdoba, AR | 2 |
| Northridge, US | 2 |
| Saint Louis, US | 2 |
| València, ES | 2 |
| WTUlocation not on record | 2 |
| SLU Artdatabankenlocation not on record | 2 |
| DOI/NPS, Little Rock Central High School National Historic Sitelocation not on record | 2 |
| Los Angeles, US | 2 |
| Rishon Le Zion, IL | 2 |
| Phyletisches Museum Jenalocation not on record | 2 |
| Tampa, US | 2 |
| Canberra, AU | 2 |
| University of New Hampshirelocation not on record | 2 |
| Parkville, AU | 1 |
| BClocation not on record | 1 |
| Zürich, CH | 1 |
| UNESClocation not on record | 1 |
| Irvine, US | 1 |
| Sevilla, ES | 1 |
| Castelar, AR | 1 |
| CIBIOlocation not on record | 1 |
| Criciúma, BR | 1 |
| Frankfurt am Main | 1 |
| Arcata, US | 1 |
| San Diego Natural History Museum, Herbariumlocation not on record | 1 |
| University of Southern Mississippilocation not on record | 1 |
| University of North Carolina at Pembrokelocation not on record | 1 |
| Norfolk, US | 1 |
| Canadian Department of Agriculturelocation not on record | 1 |
| Paris, FR | 1 |
| GAlocation not on record | 1 |
| Entomological Society of Latvialocation not on record | 1 |
| Mexico City, MX | 1 |
| BSBIlocation not on record | 1 |
| Hazara Universitylocation not on record | 1 |
| Knoxville, US | 1 |
| Porvoo, FI | 1 |
| Mlocation not on record | 1 |
| San Jose, US | 1 |
| Québec, CA | 1 |
| Podgorica, ME | 1 |
| Ashland, US | 1 |
| Flagstaff, US | 1 |
| Madrid, ES | 1 |
| Santa Cruz, US | 1 |
| Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resourceslocation not on record | 1 |
| Hobart, AU | 1 |
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Where the DNA of Centaurea benedicta was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.