Scientific name: Cirsium vulgare (Savi) Ten.
Common name: Spear thistle
Description
Habit: Biennial, 70-150 cm high.
Stems: Stout with discontinuous spiny wings.
Leaves: Wavy and deeply pinnatifid, scarcely toothed, ending in a stout prickle; rough with small prickles on the upper surface, rather white and cottony below.
Flowers: Deep purple, flower-heads few, erect, rather cottony and globular, 25-30 mm across; involucral bracts spreading and prickly; florets all tubular, spreading out above the involucral bracts.
Fruits: An achene, hairless, pappus of long, soft, feathery branched hairs.
Habitat: Pastures, roadsides, waste places, sand dunes.
Distribution: Common throughout.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No