Photographs: Paula O'Meara. Co. Wexford

Milk Thistle Silybum marianum Feochadán Muire Family: Asteraceae Flowering June - September. Annual or biennial. Introduced. Solitary, long-stalked flowerheads with red-purple, tubular florets and oval-based, hairless bracts with spiny edges and stout yellowish spine at tip. Blackish achenes with simple white pappus. The hairless, spiny, bright-green leaves have very conspicuous white veins and the stems are grooved, unwinged and +/- cottony. Height 40-100cm. Rare and decreasing in Ireland in rough cultivated and waste ground and on hedgebanks. Also found as a relic of cultivation near houses or ruins.

Milk Thistle, Silybum marianum, Feochadán Muire