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El Paso County Wildflower Project - Scottish thistle

Scottish thistle

Bloom Season: June - September

Habitat: an aggressive invader; it easily infests heavily disturbed or vacant lands, gravel pits, and new residential developments, and easily spreads to adjacent rangelands

Photography Notes: Susceptible to a breeze; Invasive

Credits: Brooke Vaughn, 19 June

Onopordum acanthium (cotton thistle, Scotch (or Scottish) thistle) is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to Europe and Western Asia from the Iberian Peninsula east to Kazakhstan, and north to central Scandinavia, and widely naturalised elsewhere,[1][2][3] with especially large populations present in the United States and Australia. It is a vigorous biennial plant with coarse, spiny leaves and conspicuous spiny-winged stems.[4]

It should not be confused with Cirsium vulgare (spear thistle), which is also known as Scotch or Scottish thistle and is the national flower of Scotland.[citation needed] Spear thistle is native to Britain, while cotton thistle is non-native.

Image Credit: Coming Soon

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Scottish thistle (non-native) (List B noxious weed) is one of many wildflowers featured in the El Paso CO Wildflower Project, a community-built field guide documenting the wildflowers of El Paso County, Colorado.