Discover
Identify
Record
Carline Thistle - Carlina vulgaris
Low to short plant. Leaves are alternate, not in a basal rosette, cottony beneath. Leaves, bracts and stems all spiny. Flowerheads are 15 to 40 mm, solitary or in groups of 2 to 5, ray less but with numerous spreading shiny yellowish bracts which are linear and pointed. Flowers open in dry weather.
Provide a photo of the whole plant in its habitat (RPR)
Favours dry well grazed grassland, especially limestone grassland, cliffs and quarry faces etc.
Flowers July to September with old plants persisting for a while.
Biennial.
England Red List: Near Threatened
Uncommon in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi and Evans 1988) it was found in 6 of the 617 tetrads, and in the Flora of Rutland (Messenger 1971) in 9 tetrads.
In the current checklist (Jeeves 2011) it is listed as occasional; nearly scarce.
It is listed on the current VC55 Rare Plant Register (Hall and Woodward 2022) because of its threat-level
Leicestershire & Rutland Map
Enter a town or village to see local records
MAP KEY:
Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2020+ | 2015-2019 | pre-2015
UK Map
Species profile
- Common names
- Carline Thistle
- Species group:
- Wildflowers
- Kingdom:
- Plantae
- Order:
- Asterales
- Family:
- Asteraceae
- Records on NatureSpot:
- 19
- First record:
- 24/04/2010 (Nicholls, David)
- Last record:
- 25/07/2021 (Bell, Melinda)
Total records by month
% of records within its species group
10km squares with records
The latest images and records displayed below include those awaiting verification checks so we cannot guarantee that every identification is correct. Once accepted, the record displays a green tick.
In the Latest Records section, click on the header to sort A-Z, and again to sort Z-A. Use the header boxes to filter the list.