Spear Thistle
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Spear Thistle by Jonathan Kington as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Spear Thistle
Image: © Jonathan Kington Taken: 25 Jul 2011
One of many Spear Thistle plants growing in the pasture on Biddulph Grange Country Park (Image). For a close up of one of the flowers see Image Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare) is often considered a ‘ruderal species’ because of its habit of colonising bare disturbed ground, but it also survives well on heavily grazed land as it is unpalatable to most grazing animals. The flowers are a rich nectar source used by numerous pollinating insects, including Honey bees, Bumble Bees and many butterflies; Goldfinches, Linnets and Greenfinches like eating the seeds. The seeds are mostly dispersed by wind, and possibly by ants too; seed is also often spread by human activity such as in bales of hay. Under the UK Weeds Act of 1959 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weeds_Act_1959 ) the Spear Thistle is designated as an "injurious weed".
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
53.130754
Longitude
-2.160027