Field Thistle

Flowering heads bear elongate, tubular, purple to lavender disc flowers. Ray flowers are absent. Involucral bracts are lance-shaped, and have a long spine emerging from their tip. Involucral bracts fold around the base of the flower head, and do not point outwardly, as in the musk thistle. Leaves emerge individually along the entire stem, including the tip, where they partially envelop the involucral bracts. The leaves are lobed, having from 2 to 4 pairs of narrowly elongate, pinnately-arranged lobes, extending from the central vein. Each lobe may, in turn, be subdivided into smaller lobes. Leaf margins, the tips of leaf lobes, and parts of the stem, all bear spines. In fields from July into October. Native to N. A.