Scientific name: Cirsium arvense (L.) Scop.
Common name: Creeping thistle
Description
Habit: Perennial, up to 1 m high, spreading by creeping roots.
Stems: Not winged.
Leaves: Deeply pinnatifid with toothed lobes, very prickly on the margins and pale green above, white beneath.
Flowers: Dull lilac, dioecious, with an abortive ovary in male flower and abortive stamens in female; flower-heads shortly stalked and 15-25 mm across, the male rather larger than the female; involucral bracts erect and weakly spine-tipped; florets all tubular.
Fruits: An achene, hairless, pappus of long, soft, feathery branched hairs.
Habitat: Dry pastures and roadsides.
Distribution: Common.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No