Photographs: Bantry area, Co. Cork

Bristly Ox-tongue Helminthotheca echioides (Picris echioides) Teanga bhó gharbh Family: Asteraceae Flowering July-October. Annual or biennial. Possibly introduced. Yellow flowerheads with distinctive heart-shaped, bristly outer bracts. Achenes with long, slender beak. The oblong-lanceolate leaves are covered with stiff, bristly hairs with swollen whitish bases. Stout prickly-hairy stems, to 100cm. Scattered distribution, mainly in the south, south-east and east of Ireland on waste and arable ground and on roadsides. Similar: Hawkweed Oxtongue, Picris hieracioides

Bristly Ox-tongue, Helminthotheca echioides, Teanga bhó gharbh