Creeping Thistle - Cirsium arvense

Medium to tall stoloniferous plant, stem usually branched, but not winged or spiny. Leaves lanceolate to oblong, pinnately lobed or unlobed, spiny, the upper leaves unstalked. Flowerheads pale purple or lilac, 15 to 25 mm, fragrant, solitary or from 2 to 5 together, stalked.

Lighter pink that most other thistles, and stem not winged, or with very short wings. As with all Cirsium, the pappus-hairs (the silky white hairs attached to the seed - the thistledown) are individually feathery or branched.

Meadows, arable land, roadsides and waste places.

June to September.

Perennial.

Very common throughout Britain.

Very common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 606 of the 617 tetrads.