Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Carduus nutans

Flower head and flower bud. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Scottsdale Bush Heritage Reserve near Bredbo

Flowering plant. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Scottsdale Bush Heritage Reserve near Bredbo

Stem. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer D Tenaglia, USA

Rosette. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Richard Old, USA.

Common name

Nodding thistle

Family

Asteraceae

Where found

Pastures and disturbed sites. Ranges, tablelands, ACT, and Western Slopes. A few records in the Sydney area.

Notes

Introduced annual or biennial herb to 1.6 m high. Stems downy, and winged with spiny lobes. Leaves with spiny margins and tips. Spiny bracts surrounding the flower heads. Basal leaves 5–30 cm long, 20–100 mm wide, the same colour on both sides, hairy, deeply dissected, forming a rosette. Stem leaves similar, alternating up the stems, 5–10 cm long. Flowers fragrant, smelling of musk. Flower heads 12-500 mm in diameter, hemispherical to globular. Florets 18–22 mm long, purple, pink, red, or mauve, occasionally white. Flower heads borne singly, usually nodding. Flowering: November-April.

General Biosecurity Duty all NSW. General Biosecurity Duty with additional restrictions in Greater Sydney area. Pest plant ACT. Noxious weed Vic.

Carduus nutans subsp. nutans in PlantNET. Subspecies are not recognised by the Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria (accessed 30 April 2021)

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Carduus~nutans (accessed 13 April 2021)

Much of the description above is based on the description in http://weeds.dpi.nsw.gov.au/Weeds/Details/95 (accessed 13 April 2021)