View Single Post
  #6   Report Post  
Old 02-07-2009, 10:47 AM posted to uk.rec.gardening
Stewart Robert Hinsley Stewart Robert Hinsley is offline
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 1,811
Default Identify a thistle?

In message
,
jmbillings writes
On Jul 1, 11:44*pm, Stewart Robert Hinsley
wrote:
In message
,
jmbillings writes

In the grounds of my office is a thistle I couldn't recognise from a
quick hunt online.


It is tall (at least 5 ft) and some points I noted were that it has
some short sharp barbs on the flats of the leaves, and also on the
stem- the ones on the stem start out sparse and get closer/smaller the
nearer to the next section where branches come out, then the process
repeats. It also had spiky green balls on the tops.


I found images of the bull, musk, spear and canada thistles online but
none looked entirely right...


I understand that a picture would probably be helpful, but I didn't
get one. Not sure if the above is really enough to go on though!


This is a UK (United Kingdom) newsgroup. However your selection of
species names suggests that you are somewhere else - or did you just
pick up the vernacular names during your search?. We may not be able to
help you, but we would have a better chance if we knew where you are.

(For UK readers Canada thistle is, fide Wikipedia, the plant we know as
field or creeping thistle - Cirsium arvense. To add to the confusion,
fide Wikipedia again, both bull and spear thistle are Cirsium vulgare.

The third common species in the UK (I've only ever once seen musk
thistle) is marsh thistle - Cirsium palustre. It seems as good a match
as anything.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley


Hello there-

I should have clarified, I am indeed in the UK. The names I mentioned
were what came up on various sites I found; however I can understand
the confusion as many of the sites seemed to be American.

I've just looked up Cirsium palustre and it has some similarities to
what I saw, but the site he
http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/marshthis.htm
says it doesn't have spines on the surface of the leaves, which I'm
sure the one I saw did. In addition, the photo doesn't quite compare
as the one I saw was more of one tall stem with the leaves coming off
on shorter "branches" rather than the one there.


It's moot now, as your plant has now been identified as teasel, but
Cirsium palustre, like Cirsium vulgare, can be either single-stemmed or
multi-stemmed. Also, teasel doesn't (I've just looked at one a couple of
hundred yards away) have spines on the surface of the leaves either -
but it does have spines along the underside of the midrib.

Apart from holly cultivars (e.g. 'Ferox') the only plant I know with
spines on the leaf surface is bristly oxtounge (Picris echioides).
Prickly lettuce (Lactuca serriola), like teasel, has spines along the
midrib underside.

I'll have to take a look at it again tomorrow and upload a photo
somewhere!


--
Stewart Robert Hinsley