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.
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.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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