Slender thistle
Carduus tenuiflorus
Family · Asteraceae · Irritating
The thistle of verges and rubble with tight bunches of narrow pale pink heads at the top, and a stem winged by spiny wings right up to beneath the flowers.
Roadsides and waste ground · Fields and pasture · Town and roadside · Dunes and sand
Also known aswinged plumeless thistle, shore thistle
How to tell it
A stem winged by continuous spiny wings running right up close to the heads, which separates it from spear thistle, whose wings stop short. Narrow cylindrical heads, a centimetre across, grouped in bunches of three to ten. Pale pink or nearly white florets. Leaves whitish beneath.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
No relevant use. It is among the first plants to take over disturbed ground and rubble, and the same winged stem that identifies it is what makes it unpleasant to push aside by hand.