Common name:
Woolly thistle
Family:
Scientific name:
Cirsium eriophorum
Main flower color:
Range:
South/central England and south Wales
Height:
Up to 150 cm
Habitat:
Short, calcareous grassland
Flowers:
Florets are purple to reddish, atop a large flowerhead (up to 7 cm in diameter) with numerous narrow, spiny bracts below, angled outwards, The space between the bracts is filled with dense cobwebby hairs, obscuring the globular involucre, Stems are grooved, unwinged, and covered with similar hairs
Leaves:
Deeply pinnately lobed, with cottony hairs on the undersurface; generally hairless above. The linear lobes terminate in a long, yellowish spine. Basal leaves are up to 30 cm long
Season:
January to September
Rarity:
★★★★★
