On Thu, 26 Jun 2003 17:25:10 +0100, Kay Easton
wrote:

Wouldn't happen to be a type of Thistle, would it?
http://www.mccullagh.org/db7/d30-30/thistle.jpg

No - it is definitely an Eryngium.

And your picture wasn't a thistle either ;-)
It was a teasel - different family altogether - Dipsacaceae, as opposed
to carrot family for sea holly and daisy family for thistle.

It's a pic I had seen before from a digicam gallery reference,
http://www.mccullagh.org/image/d30-30/
and googled it up again, but it looks like the dead dried winter remains
of thistle I've seen in fields. Maybe your Eryngiums and our thistles
are like our respective yellow hammer birds? g

Bart