This is a glandular, woolly herbaceous plant which reaches on average 50 to 100 centimetres in height, up to a maximum of two metres.  Each 'globe' is made up of many individual flowerheads, each of which is a single flower surrounded by 3 rows of bracts. Several species and hybrids of Globe-thistle are grown in gardens, and since any may escape and become established we have decided to treat them as an aggregate for NatureSpot purposes.

Identification to species-level depends on details of the phyllaries (the bracts beneath each flower) and the presence or absence of glandular hairs on leaves or phyllaries.

A specimen will be needed to verify species records

Roadside verges and waste areas, often close to habitation as a garden escape which has persisted in the wild.

Flowers June to August.

Perennial.

Scattered thinly, but widely around much of Britain.

Uncommon in Leicestershire and Rutland. It was not recorded in the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire.