Seasonal Wild Flowers

Corn Sow-thistle

Sonchus arvensis

Asteraceae

Perennial Sow-thistle, Field Milk-thistle

July to October

It is found throughout the ountry.

See the BSBI distribution map for Corn Sow-thistle

It grows by roads, paths, rivers and ditches, on sea-walls, the

upper parts of beaches and saltmarshes, and as a weed of

arable and disturbed waste ground.

Corn Sow-thistle is a creeping, perennial herb growing up to 1.5 m

and forming quite large, eye-catching patches.

The flowers are up to 6cm across, deep yellow, showy and

raggedy.

The flower buds (sepals) and upper parts of the stems are

covered in distinctive, sticky, yellow hairs.

Viewed from above, the unlobed upper leaves clasp the stem

Viewed from below the leaves are greyish with round auricles

rather like Prickly Sow-thistle - but the auricles are less

obvious.

The lower leaves have tooth-shaped lobes.

Leaves and stems are softly toothed.

Corn Sow-thistle between marsh and road

Slightly raggedy flower

Ray and disc florets

Yellow hairs on sepals

Softly toothed, unlobed, upper leaf

Rounded leaf auricle - greyish underside

Lobed, lower leaves