thistle size

[seb_seb]

a thistle that has popped up itself and ive never noticed it before, has now grown to 1.75 metres in height. What a beast!!!

[satrow]

If it's in a garden, have you ruled out Globe Artichoke?

Andy.

[birdman]

We had something similar in our garden last year - which my partner who reckons to know a bit about these things, said was a Sow Thistle.

She also said it was very attractive and we should leave it, until it started to drown out much if the stuff around it. When we dug it up, we found the tap root to be at least as long as the shoot - if not more.

[Paul Rule]

Any chance of a pic of the leaves/flowers/both?

[walwyn]

Originally posted by birdman
She also said it was very attractive and we should leave it,

Yep I've heard that one too. Usually with the additional 'I won't let it go to seed - just let it finish flowering.'

Years later you are still trying to eradicate it, and woe betide you should you leave even a sliver of root behind.

[seb_seb]

no scanner ,digital camera..sorry Paul.
Satrow, i will check this global artichoke thing. but it seems liek most other thistles i have seen. Im gonna go search for "global artichoke" and "Sow thistle"

[Michael Frankis]

Seb,

Make that 'globe artichoke' (not globaL'!)

Michael

[seb_seb]

http://www.fishing-in-wales.com/wildlife/plants/summer/sowthist.htm - definately not this
http://www.cadtutor.net/wb/plantgal/pg-globe.htm-definately not this, although thanks for telling me to have a look because i have a globe artichoke close by,and didnt know what it was before!!

Too let you know...the huge thistle is situated in an area of my garden under a hawthorn tree(which has all leaves and branches ,that are low, clipped), i let the plants and flowers here grow naturally, par example there are: thistle,bramble,cuckooflower,firethorn,dandelion,f oxglove and yarrow.

[Nina P]

Seb-seb, Have you looked up the Caledonian thistle, very pretty, and have known this to reach the roof of a two story building, this roots across the soil, and can surface up to a mile away, to my knowledge. Trouble is that they appear out of the blue and difficult to eradicate when there. Plus side the finches love the seed, but your neighbours won't thank you for keeping it. The choice is yours. Nina.

[steve_nova]

If it has aparently just popped up from nowhere, then it most likely is the Spear Thistle (Circium vulgare). It is a biennial plant forming a flattened rosette of leaves the first year, and a huge growth spurt the second year with it's tall flower spike.

A classic biennial, it simply builds itself up the first season by sending all the food it has made that first year into it's huge tap root. This then overwinters and like a cork out of a bottle, explodes into a flowering stem from all the stored energy in its root in the second season. The plant relies totally on seed for reproduction and doesn't spread by runners as suggested by another poster. This sounds more like the Creeping Thistle (Circium arvense) which is a much smaller scale plant.

I have myself come across the odd specimen of Spear Thistle well above head height, and I am 6ft.


As for the Caledonian Thistle or Scotch Thistle (which is actually also incorrect as the Spear Thistle above is used for the true Scottish motif) Onopordum acanthium is from Southern Europe and grown as an ornamental in this country. It is also a two year plant (biennial) except on a much larger scale than even the Spear Thistle and has more silvery leaves. It flower spike can reach up to 16ft in it's second, and final year before dying.


Spear thistle flower image below.
http://www.maxton.bordernet.co.uk/naturewatch/images/large/173-9.jpg

[steve_nova]

Incidently, Onopordum doesn't have a tuft of fluff on it's seeds for dispersal unlike members of the genus Circium so it also can't have just blown in unlike the Spear Thistle which probably did.

Sorry Nina, I'm not really getting at you by the way!

[seb_seb]

spear thistle it is!!!
thanks

[cjay]

Sow Thistle is of the genus Sonchus, Most proper thistles are of the genus Cirsium