Long Mead Farm and Local Wildlife Site
  Long Mead County Wildlife Site
  • Long Mead
    • The Farm
    • Our Habitats >
      • The hay meadow
      • The orchard >
        • Find the stories of the orchard trees
      • The river and reed bed
      • The fuel copse
    • Our plants
    • Collaborations
    • Long Mead Foundation
  • THAMES VALLEY WILDFLOWER MEADOW RESTORATION PROJECT
    • Meadow Restoration: step by step
  • Research
    • Soil Carbon
    • Invertebrate Diversity
    • Botanical Surveys
    • Wildlife surveys >
      • Enter records
      • Map of Records
  • Outreach
    • Care Farming
    • NATURE RECOVERY NETWORK
    • Schools >
      • Schools Nature Recovery Network
      • School Visits
      • Teacher's resources >
        • Long Mead and the National Curriculum
        • Long Mead and History >
          • Famous Eynsham Apple Growers
          • Water meadows in history
          • Long Mead and River Thames before Tudor times
          • Swinford Toll Bridge and highwaymen: Tom, Dick and Harry
          • The Thames at Long Mead in literature
          • Risk Assessment of Long Mead
          • The Countryside Code
    • Worshops/Training >
      • Meadow Restoration
      • Teachers Workshops
      • Hedge-laying
      • Community Meadows
      • Art and Science

creeping thistle

Latin name: Cirsium arvense
Family: Asteraceae
Other common names; 
Flowering time: June to October
Height: up to 1.2m
Growing conditions: disturbed ground
Nectar source for: butterflies such as letter hairstreak, peacock and meadow brown, and many bees.
Food source for: seeds are important for a variety of farmland birds, such as goldfinch, greenfinch, siskin, linnet, twite, redpoll. Butterflies also feed on the leaves including painted lady

Description
Its creeping roots enable it to quickly spread across an area, forming large colonies. 
​​
How to identify: The Creeping thistle has flower heads with lilac-pink florets (tiny flowers) on top of a small cylinder of spiny bracts (leaf-like structures). Its leaves are divided and spiny, and its stems do not have wings. Like most thistles, it produces masses of fluffy, wind-borne seeds in late summer.
How to propagate: Its root propagation is very efficient; fragments of a rhizome can remain dormant in the soil for years and then appear when there is a gap in the sward. A small cutting can spread into a 20m patch in just two years.

Contact; Catriona Bass                               

EMAIL LONGMEAD.COUNTYWILDLIFESITE@GMAIL.COM

LONG MEAD FOUNDATION (Charity number 1196294): Email longmeadfoundation@gmail.com
​