Melancholy thistle

Cirsium heterophyllum (melancholy thistle) is an erect, almost spineless herbaceous perennial of the daisy family (Asteraceae), unusual among thistles in lacking sharp spines on its stem. The plant grows 45–120 cm tall from a stout rhizome and spreads slowly by creeping stolons. The lance-shaped basal leaves are 20–40 cm long and 4–8 cm wide with softly prickly margins, while the upper leaves are stalkless and clasp the cottony, single or sparingly branched stem with heart-shaped bases; all leaves are dark green and hairless above but conspicuously white-felted on the underside. From July to August large solitary or few-clustered erect flower heads 3–5 cm across appear at the stem tips, each composed of crimson- to red-purple disc florets surrounded by purple-tinged, slightly cottony involucral bracts. The fruit is a brown achene topped with a feathery pappus. Native to northern Europe, the high mountains of southern Europe, and central Asia, it inhabits damp upland meadows, hay pastures, road verges, and open woodland glades from Scandinavia through Russia, and in Britain is confined to upland Scotland, northern England, and north Wales.