Onopordum acanthium
L. Scotch ThistleErect annual or biennial to 1 m high; stems winged, whitish, woolly or densely cobwebbed; wings to 15 mm wide, with spines to 5 mm long on lobes. Leaves sessile, mostly cauline, oblong-ovate to broad-lanceolate or ovate in outline, to 35 cm long and 20 cm wide, pinnatifid or toothed, with 6–8 pairs of broad-triangular lobes or teeth, each tipped by a yellowish spine, upper surface grey-green and sparsely woolly, lower surface paler and more densely woolly. Capitula shortly pedunculate, solitary or in clusters of 2 or 3 at ends of stems, subglobose, 3.5–5 cm diam.; involucral bracts subulate, to 2.5 cm long, inner ones erect, outer reflexed, tapered into a yellow spinose apical appendage, base cobwebbed. Florets longer than involucre, purple. Cypselas 4–5 mm long, 4-ribbed, wrinkled, grey with darker mottling; pappus 7–10 mm long, buff. Flowers spring and summer.
LoM, MuM, Wim, VVP, VRiv, RobP, MuF, GipP, OtP, Gold, CVU, DunT, NIS, EGL, EGU, HSF, HNF, MonT, VAlp. Also naturalised SA, NSW, Tas. Native to Europe, northern Africa and Asia. Widespread in central Victoria, often in pastures and on roadsides, and declared a noxious weed in the State.
Victorian plants have long florets and broad stem-wing of the nominate subspecies (Tutin et al. 1976).
Spinning
