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Welted Thistle
Carduus crispus
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Alien species
Welted Thistle is a tall, two‑year thistle with purple, brush‑like flower heads and many small, fine spines. Native to Europe and Asia, it favours places disturbed by people, such as roadsides, field edges and waste ground, and it is also found as an introduced plant in North America.
Did you know?
- Its stems have narrow, spiny wings, but the spines are fine and only a few millimetres long.
- Each small hard seed carries a silky tuft that lets it drift on the wind.
About the species
Identification
Tall (50–180 cm), upright, living two years. Stem greyish with fine webby hairs and narrow spiny wings; spines are small and not very fierce. Leaves along the stem, deeply cut or sharply toothed; dark green above, pale and softly hairy beneath. Many crowded, upright heads 1.5–2.5 cm, opening purple; stalks hairy. Later, shiny seeds with white fluff. Similar species: Spear thistle has much longer, hard spines and bigger heads; Nodding thistle’s heads droop; Creeping thistle lacks spiny wings on the stem. Flowers in Finland from July to September.
Plant group
Herbaceous plants
Habitat
yards and roadsides
Flowering
Jul–Sep
About the habitat
Open, disturbed ground: yards, village verges, roadsides, waste places, field edges and fallow ground, and old fort or barracks areas. Found through most of Finland but patchy; most frequent in the south and again from the Oulu area to central Lapland; scarce in the far north of Lapland.
Sources
Photo: Robert Flogaus-Faust, CC BY 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carduus acanthoides 2 RF.jpg
Text: Pinkka: Kasvitieteen retkeily Ahvenanmaalle - Nåtö ja Harskatan, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39883
Text: Pinkka (Luomus), CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39883
Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyl%C3%A4karhiainen
