Perennial Sow-thistle - Sonchus arvensis

Medium to tall plant with far creeping stolons, stems erect to 1.5 metres, furrowed and bristly above. Upper leaves clasping the stem with rounded basal lobes. Flowerheads golden yellow, 40 to 50 mm in lax clusters. Flower bracts with sticky, yellowish glands.

Both Rough Sow-thistle and Smooth Sow-thistle are similar, but Perennial Sow-thistle has larger, more showy and deeper yellow flowers. Smooth Sow-thistle has pointed leaf auricles and Rough Sow-thistle has prickly leaves.

Cultivated and waste ground, river and stream margins, roadsides.

July to October.

Perennial.

Very common throughout much of Britain, though scarcer in the north.

Very common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 551 of the 617 tetrads.