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Onopordum tauricum
Also called Scotch Thistle, Scottish Thistle, Taurean Thistle, Taurus Cotton Thistle, Bull Cotton Thistle, Taurian Thistle
Bull cottonthistle is a spiny biennial thistle from Eurasia that grows up to 2 metres tall and is a noxious weed in places where it has been introduced. It is grown only as a curiosity or wildflower, not as a garden plant, and is best kept out of gardens due to its invasive tendency.
Onopordum tauricum, the Taurian thistle or bull cottonthistle, is a species of thistle. It is native to Eurasia and is known in Australia and the western United States as an introduced species. It easily becomes a noxious weed, similar to its relative, Onopordum acanthium.
This is a biennial herb producing a sticky, glandular, very spiny stem up to 2 meters tall. The spiny, bright light green leaves are up to 25 centimeters long and are divided into triangular lobes. The inflorescence is made up of several large flower heads each up to 7 centimeters wide. They are lined with long, spiny phyllaries and bear pink-purple tubular flowers up to 3 centimeters long.
Cotton Thistle · Illyrian cottonthistle · Reticulate Thistle
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Onopordum tauricum 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.
