Family: Asteraceae Musk Thistle / Nodding Thistle Carduus nutans Flowering time: May - September. Biennial Can be frequent on neutral or calcareous grasslands, waste ground and roadsides but few recent records from Scotland or Ireland. Solitary, semi-drooping, large red-purple flowers on erect, cottony, winged stems. The leaves are deeply-pinnate lobed, the lobes tipped with strong spines and the veins woolly below. The seedheads have simple achenes. Height 30-100cm

   
Musk Thistle, Carduus nutans
Studland, Dorset. August 2007