Melancholy Thistle

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Asterales

Asteraceae (Daisy)

Annual Sunflower, Autumn Hawkbit, Beaked Hawksbeard, Black Knapweed, Black-eyed Susan, Blanketflower, Blue Fleabane, Blue Globe-thistle, Bristly Oxtongue, Butterbur, Buttonweed, Canadian Fleabane, Canadian Goldenrod, Carline Thistle, Chalk Knapweed, Coltsfoot, Common Blue Sow-thistle, Common Cat's-ear, Common Daisy, Common Dandelion, Common Fleabane, Common Goldenrod, Common Groundsel, Common Michaelmas Daisy, Common Mugwort, Common Ragwort, Confused Michaelmas Daisy, Corn Marigold, Cornflower, Creeping Thistle, Dwarf Thistle, Early Goldenrod, Feverfew, Fox and Cubs, Gallant Soldier, Garden Lettuce, Goat's Beard, Great Lettuce, Greater Burdock, Greater Knapweed, Grey-headed Hawkweed, Heath Groundsel, Hemp Agrimony, Hoary Ragwort, Lavender-cotton, Leopardsbane, Lesser Burdock, Lesser Hawkbit, Marsh Cudweed, Marsh Ragwort, Marsh Thistle, Mexican Fleabane, Mountain Everlasting, Mouse-ear Hawkweed, Musk Thistle, Narrow-leaved Ragwort, New England Hawkweed, Nipplewort, Oxeye Daisy, Oxford Ragwort, Perennial Cornflower, Perennial Sow-thistle, Pineapple Mayweed, Ploughman's Spikenard, Pot Marigold, Prickly Lettuce, Prickly Sow-thistle, Red-seeded Dandelion, Rough Hawkbit, Scented Mayweed, Scentless Mayweed, Sea Aster, Sea Mayweed, Seaside Daisy, Shaggy Soldier, Shasta Daisy, Shrub Ragwort, Silver Ragwort, Smooth Hawksbeard, Smooth Sow-thistle, Sneezeweed, Sneezewort, Spear Thistle, Spotted Cat's-ear, Sticky Groundsel, Tansy, Trifid Bur-marigold, Tyneside Leopardplant, Wall Lettuce, White Buttons, Winter Heliotrope, Wood Burdock, Yarrow

Flower

Perennial

120 centimetres tall

Ditches, farmland, fens, grassland, marshes, meadows, riverbanks, riversides, roadsides, swamps, waterside, woodland.

Purple flowers between 3 and 5cm across. The flowers are normally solitary. The bracts are usually hairless and purple-tipped. They are broad to lanceolate in shape. 5 stamens.

A long, blunt, flattish achene, up to 5mm long. The fruit is tipped by white, feathery hairs.

A clump-forming, perennial herb with lance-shaped, alternate, green leaves, narrowing towards the stem. The toothed or untoothed, upper leaves clasp their stems. The basal rosette of leaves are sometimes pinnately lobed. The leaves are hairless above and covered in a white, cottony down below. The leaf edges are softly prickly. The leaves reach 20cm in length. The stout stems are grooved and are neither winged or spiny. The stems are also cottony.

Curly Head.

Occasionally seen