Marsh Thistle
Marsh Thistle - Cirsium palustre
Medium to tall plant to 1.2 metres, stems spiny-winged to the top, sometimes branched above. Leaves linear lanceolate, pinnately lobed and very spiny, mostly unstalked, hairy above. Flowerheads usually purple, 10 to 12 mm in clusters of 2 to 8. Flower bracts purple tinged, erect, weakly spiny.
Welted Thistle (Carduus crispus) - but check the pappus hairs
Stem spiny all the way up. As with all Cirsium, the pappus-hairs (the silky white hairs attached to the seed - the thistledown) are individually feathery or branched.
A photograph of the whole plant, showing stems and leaves as well as flowers
Wet habitats, woodland clearings, wet ditches and marshes.
July to September.
Biennial.
Common throughout Britain.
Quite common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 379 of the 617 tetrads.
David Nicholls
Lea Meadows
07 July 2011
Graham Calow
Wykin Canal Towpath
26 June 2015
David Nicholls
Coalville Meadows
26 June 2021
David Nicholls
Ulverscroft
14 July 2011
David Nicholls
Launde Fish Ponds
22 September 2012
Barbara Cooper
Holwell Nature Reserve
17 May 2012
stepgray4
Wymeswold Meadows
26 July 2021
Pappus hairs are feathery
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Uroleucon aeneum
The adult Uroleucon aeneum apterae has a body length of is 3.0 to 4.3 mm. The cauda (tail) in this species is black which helps to identify it. It is associated with Thistles.
Large Thistle Aphid
The Large Thistle Aphid (Uroleucon cirsii) is found on Thistles, especially Creeping Thistle. It is between 4 and 5.2 mm in length and has characteristic two tone legs. The cauda (tail) is pale dusky yellow in this species which helps to distinguish it from other thistle feeding aphids.