Carthamus tinctorius is an erect, branching plant growing to 60 cm and sometimes considerably taller. It has spiny leaves and vivid orange or yellow, thistle-like flower-heads with prominent green bracts.

Please provide photographs to support your record.

Used in bird-seed mixtures and may appear as a casual on rubbish tips, in places where farmyard manure has been dumped or other waste places.

Flowering June to August.

An annual or biennial herb.

There are a scattering of records from across Britain for this species in the wild.

The 2021 record from Castle Hill Country Park is the first from our area.