Carline thistle

Carlina vulgaris, the carline thistle, is a stiff biennial herb of the family Asteraceae growing 10 to 60 cm tall, with rigid, often reddish, cottony stems. The narrow, lance-shaped leaves are wavy-edged and spiny, the lower ones forming a rosette. The flower heads are distinctive: clusters of one to several large heads at the stem top, each surrounded by spreading, straw-coloured, papery inner bracts that radiate like stiff golden rays around a central boss of purplish-brown disc florets. These bracts are hygroscopic, opening in dry weather and closing when damp, so the dead heads persist through winter. It flowers in late summer. Native to Europe and western Asia, carline thistle grows on dry, calcareous and sandy grassland, dunes, heaths and rocky slopes.