Purple milk thistle
Galactites tomentosa
Family · Asteraceae · Irritating
The white-veined thistle that covers southern cornfields and verges in spring, with pale lilac heads. It is the commonest thistle in the Peninsula and the one most confused with milk thistle.
Fields and pasture · Roadsides and waste ground · Montado · Town and roadside
Also known asboar thistle
How to tell it
Leaves with strongly marked white veins, cut and spiny, white-hairy beneath. Small pale lilac heads, with the marginal florets larger than the central ones. Much smaller than milk thistle.
What it is confused with
Milk thistle
Silybum marianum
Size settles it: milk thistle is huge, with purple heads the size of an egg; purple milk thistle is small with pale lilac flowers. Both have white veins.
Open sheet →What it is for
None relevant. The peeled stems were eaten in some regions, as with most thistles, but its fine spines lodge in the skin and it is more nuisance than it is worth.