Musk thistle

Carduus nutans (musk thistle, nodding thistle) is a stout biennial or rarely short-lived monocarpic herb of the daisy family (Asteraceae), in its first year forming a flat overwintering rosette of large coarsely lobed leaves and in the second year producing tall, multi-branched, spiny-winged stems that can reach 2.7 m at maturity. The deeply pinnatifid dark green leaves are up to 40 cm long with strongly spiny-tipped lobes, glabrous to slightly cottony beneath, and run down the stems as conspicuously spiny wings. From June to September the branch tips bear large, showy, solitary globose flower heads 3–7 cm in diameter that famously droop or nod at a 90° to 120° angle on long stalks; the heads are surrounded by broad, lance-shaped, sharply spine-tipped purplish involucral bracts that reflex outward, and the dense central mass of disc florets is rich rose-purple, violet, or occasionally white, emitting a faint sweet musky scent. The fruit is a smooth, ridged, golden-brown achene topped by a long white feathery pappus. Native to Europe, western Siberia, southwestern Asia, and North Africa, it grows in pastures, overgrazed grasslands, road verges, and disturbed open ground.