Family: Asteraceae Cirsium eriophorum     *     Woolly Thistle Flowering time: June - September. Biennial Habitat: Dry, calcareous grasslands, quarries, roadsides and scrub. Absent from most of Wales and from Scotland and Ireland. Large, solitary, white-woolly flowerheads with red purple florets and spine-tipped bracts. Stout, erect, very cottony unwinged stems, the short-stalked, deeply pinnate leaves tipped with strong spines. Height 60-150cm

Woolly Thistle, Cirsium eriophorum
The Purbecks, Dorset. June 2006 and August 2012