Carlina vulgaris Carline Thistle

A distinctive, spiny thistle which dies off to leave attractive, yellowish shoots that look much like the living plants and which can be collected and preserved as 'everlasting' specimens for dried flower displays. it is a mild calcicole and frrequently occurs in calcareous grassland. Although it has a predominantly coastal distibution in West Glamorgan, it also occurs inland on coal tips and along tracks dressed with calcareous gravel.

Native