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Onopordum illyricum
Also called Illyrian Thistle
Illyrian cottonthistle is a spiny biennial thistle from southwestern Europe, with large purple flower heads, and it is a noxious weed in Australia and California. It is grown mainly as a bold architectural plant in gardens where it can be contained, not as an easy ornamental.
Onopordum illyricum is a species of thistle known by the common name Illyrian thistle, or Illyrian cottonthistle. It is native to southwestern Europe, but has been introduced into Australia and California, where it has become a noxious weed.
The plant is a biennial herb producing an erect, branching, winged, spiny stem known to exceed two meters in maximum height. The spiny leaves may be up to 50 centimetres (20 in) long and are divided into deep toothed lobes. The inflorescence bears several large flower heads each up to 7 centimetres (3 in) wide. They are lined with spiny, woolly to cobwebby phyllaries and bear many narrow glandular purple flowers each about 3 centimetres (1.2 in) long. The fruit is a cylindrical achene 4 or 5 millimetres (0.16 or 0.20 in) long topped with a white pappus 1 centimetre (0.39 in) in length.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Onopordum illyricum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
