creeping thistle
Latin name: Cirsium arvense
Family: Asteraceae
Other common names; grey text
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.
Family: Asteraceae
Other common names; grey text
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.