Smooth Sow-thistle - Sonchus oleraceus

Short to tall greyish plant. Upper leaves clasp the stem with triangular, leaves with pointed basal lobes. Flowerheads pale yellow 20 to 25 mm, borne in lax clusters.

Prickly Sow-thistle

Auricles of stem-leaves pointed.  Achenes transversely rugose. Leaves deeply pinnately lobed, but can be very similar to S asper

Photograph of stem and leaves, showing auricles

Bare and waste ground, roadsides. A weed of cultivation.

May to November.

Annual.

Very common throughout Britain except for parts of the Scottish Highlands.

Very common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 530 of the 617 tetrads.