Scientific name: Carduus tenuiflorus Curtis
Common name: Thistle
Description
Habit: Biennial, 40-120 cm high.
Stems: Stiff, erect, white-hairy, with continuous prickly wings running down from the leaf bases.
Leaves: Narrow, lobed, prickly, lowerside white-hairy.
Flowers: Pinkish-mauve or white; flower-heads erect, more or less cylindrical, stalkless in small clusters of 3-10; involucral bracts erect, linear-oblong, nearly hairless with prickly tips, numerous, overlapping in several rows and undivided; florets tubular and scarcely spreading.
Fruits: Hairless achenes; pappus of long, silky, unbranched hairs.
Habitat: Gravel beaches, seaside pastures, waste places.
Distribution: Very local, mainly around Galway Bay.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No