Abstract: Sequence related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) technique was used to identify SRAP fragment linked to Carthamus tinctorius L. spines of outer involucral bract (OIB), experimental evidence for molecular marker assistant breeding of Carthamus tinctorius L. has been provided. Based on the strategy of bulk segregate analysis (BSA), two gene pools were separately constructed according to the extreme trait of OIB with many long spines and no spines from Carthamus tinctorius L. Forty-five pairs of SRAP primers were selected and screened from two parents and two gene pools, and one SRAP marker M3E3 was found to be linked to the spines in segregating F₂ population confirmation. M3E3 SRAP band was excised, cloned and sequenced. In 20 spininess individuals, this marker was present in 16 spininess individuals and absent in 4 individuals. This band was absent in the 15 spineless F₂ segregating individuals, which accounted for 11.4% recombination. The M3E3 extract length was 349bp, of which the base components of A+T accounted for 41.08%. One SRAP marker M3E3 linked to the spines in Carthamus tinctorius L. will be of good use for breeding spineless cultivars at the molecular level in the future.