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Rough Sow-Thistle

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Rough Sow-Thistle photos

Scientific Name:Sonchus asper
Buds and leaves of Rough Sow-thistle
Buds and leaves of Rough Sow-thistle
Photo: A J Brown

Other Common Names:
Prickly Sow-Thistle, Spiny Sow-Thistle, Spiny-Leaved Sow-Thistle, Sharp-Fringed Sow-Thistle

Status:
Native to Europe. Naturalised throughout Australia.

Plant Description:

Annual to biennial 20-150 cm tall with variously lobed, lanceolate (lance-shaped) or oblanceolate leaves, bright green but often with a whitish bloom. Basal leaves 4-25 cm long and 2-7 cm wide and stem leaves 6-30 cm long and 2-7 cm wide with rounded, ear-shaped lobes (auricles or collars). Leaf margins wavy, toothed and pungently spiny.

Flower stems and involucre (flower cup) are hairless or have a few glandular hairs. Involucre 10-13 mm long and ‘petals’ (each is actually a single flower) are 4-5 mm long. The fruit is a cypsela or achene (dry, indehiscent and one-seeded), obovoid 2-3 mm long, moderately compressed and 3-ribbed on each face.

Habitat:
Scattered across most of Victoria, including coastal dunes but reasonably common on moist or disturbed ground, inland. Appears to have some salinity tolerance.

RegionSalinity ClassWaterlogging Class
Mallee, Loddon Murray, Central and Northern, Wimmera, Western, GippslandS0, S1W0, W1

Comments:
Rough Sow-thistle belongs to a group of mainly yellow-flowered daisies in the Tribe Lactuceae. The plants in this tribe are characterised by having a basal rosette of leaves (flat-weeds), milky sap in their stems and their flower-heads consisting entirely of ray florets (i.e. no ‘eye’ to the daisy). See Key to Yellow Daisy Flat-weeds. There are two subspecies of Rough Sow-thistle in Victoria; subsp. asper being an annual with a basal stem diameter of 1 cm, most leaves occurring along the stem and leaves shallowly lobed or toothed; subsp. glaucescens being a robust annual to biennial with a basal stem diameter of 1-2 cm diameter, a definite basal rosette and leaves deeply lobed.

Rough Sow-Thistle Photos

Leaves of Rough Sow-thistle
Leaves of rough Sow-thistle
Photo: A J Brown
Leaf of Rough Sow-thistle
Leaf of Rough Sow-thistle
Photo: A J Brown

Flower buds of Rough Sow-thistle
Flower buds of Rough Sow-thistle
Photo: A J Brown

Flower bud of Rough Sow-thistle
Flower bud of Rough Sow-thistle
Photo: A J Brown

Leaf auricles of Rough Sow-thistle
Leaf auricle of Rough Sow-thistle
Photo: A J Brown

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