Downy Safflower ( Carthamnus lanatus). Carthamus lanatus is a species of thistle known as woolly distaff thistle, downy safflower or saffron thistle. It is a spiny, glandular, woolly plant, closely related to safflower, which is in the same genus. This annual plant is a native of the Mediterranean Basin, but it is familiar in other places where it was introduced and has become an invasive weed, Sibillini, Umbria, Italy July 2020