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Safflower

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Plants

                  iSafflower
           Scientific classification

   Kingdom:  Plantae
   Division: Magnoliophyta
   Class:    Magnoliopsida
   Order:    Asterales
   Family:   Asteraceae
   Genus:    Carthamus
   Species:  C. tinctorius

                                Binomial name

   Carthamus tinctorius
   (Mohler, Roth, Schmidt & Boudreaux, 1967)

   Safflower is a highly branched, herbaceous, thistle-like annual,
   usually with many long sharp spines on the leaves. Plants are 30 to 150
   cm tall with globular flower heads ( capitula) and commonly, brilliant
   yellow, orange or red flowers which bloom in July. Each branch will
   usually have from one to five flower heads containing 15 to 20 seeds
   per head. Safflower has a strong taproot which enables it to thrive in
   dry climates, but the plant is very susceptible to frost injury from
   stem elongation to maturity.

   Traditionally, the crop was grown for its flowers, used for colouring
   and flavouring foods and making red and yellow dyes, especially before
   cheaper aniline dyes became available, and in medicines. For the last
   fifty years or so, the plant has been cultivated mainly for the
   vegetable oil extracted from its seeds.

   Safflower oil is flavorless and colorless, and nutritionally similar to
   sunflower oil. It is used mainly as a cooking oil, in salad dressing,
   and for the production of margarine. It may also be taken as a
   nutritional supplement. INCI nomenclature is Carthamus tinctorius

   There are two types of safflower that produce different kinds of oil:
   one high in monounsaturated fatty acid ( oleic acid) and the other high
   in polyunsaturated fatty acid ( linoleic acid). Currently the
   predominant oil market is for the former, which is lower in saturates
   and higher in monounsaturates than olive oil, for example.

   Safflower oil is also used in painting in the place of linseed oil,
   particularly with white, as it does not have the yellow tint which
   linseed oil possesses.

   Safflower is one of humanity's oldest crops, but is a minor crop today,
   with about 600,000 t being produced commercially in more than sixty
   countries worldwide. India, United States, and Mexico are the leading
   producers, with Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, China, Argentina and Australia
   accounting for most of the remainder.

   Safflower flowers are occasionally used in cooking as a cheaper
   substitute for saffron, and are thus sometimes referred to as "bastard
   saffron." Safflower seed is also used quite commonly as an alternative
   to sunflower seed in birdfeeders, as squirrels do not like the taste of
   it.

   Lana is a strain of Safflower that grows in the southwestern United
   States, most notably Arizona and New Mexico.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safflower"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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