Scientific name: Carduus nutans L.
Common name: Thistle
Description:
Habit: Biennial, to 1 m high.
Stems: Robust, stiff erect, with discontinuous spiny wings.
Leaves: Narrow, prickly and sparsely hairy.
Flowers: Purple, flower-heads hemispherical, usually nodding and up to 40 mm across; involucral bracts numerous, overlapping in several rows, undivided and with prickly tips; all except the inner involucral bracts strongly bent out and back; florets tubular.
Fruits: Hairless achenes; pappus of long, silky, unbranched hairs.
Habitat: Pastures, heath, roadsides.
Distribution: Tawin Island, very rare.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No