Nodding Thistle

Nodding Thistle
Tasmania Department of Primary Industries and Water (Australia). Weeds, Pests, and Diseases.
Identification/Description; Distribution; Controls ...

DESCRIPTION: Musk, or nodding thistle is an aggressive, biennial herb with showy red-purple flowers and painful spiny stems and leaves. Mature plants range in height from 1½ to 6 feet tall, and have multi-branched stems.

Carduus nutans, the Musk Thistle, or Nodding Thistle, occurs in waste places, and is particularly partial to chalky and limestone soils.

Spear thistle (Cirsium vulgare ), perennial thistle (Cirsium arvense ), artichoke thistle (Cynara cardunculus ), variegated thistle (Silybum marianum ), nodding thistle (Carduus nutans subsp. nutans) and the slender thistles (Carduus pycnocephalus ...

Nodding Thistle - Carduus nutans L.
Perennial Thistle - Cirsium arvense
Prickly Thistle - Cirsium arvense
Sharp-fringed Sow Thistle - Sonchus asper
Small-flowered Thistle - Cirsium arvense
Spiny Sow Thistle - Sonchus asper ...

See also: Musk Thistle, Sow Thistle, Thistle, Black Ash, Striped Maple