Cirsium vulgare
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| Cirsium vulgare (Savi) Ten. |
Cirsium vulgare (Spear Thistle; syn. C. lanceolatum) is a species of the genus Cirsium, native throughout Europe, Asia and northern Africa, but also present in North America as an invasive weed.
It is a tall biennial plant, forming a rosette of leaves in the first year, and a flowering stem 1-2.5 m tall in the second year. The leaves are very spiny, deeply lobed, up to 15-25 cm long (smaller on the upper part of the flower stem). The inflorescence is 2.5-5 cm diameter, pink-purple, with all the florets of similar form (no division into disc and ray florets). The seeds are 5 mm long, with a downy pappus which assists in wind dispersal.
