Also called Variegated thistle, Cabbage thistle, Gundagai thistle, Lady’s thistle, Marian thistle, Saint Mary’s thistle. Milk thistle is in the family Asteracea, and is native from Southern Europe through to Asia, but is now found throughout the world. It is an annual prickly herb, and can be spread by water, or by seed or plant pieces being spread by machinery or animals.

Read the article in Autumn – Week 3.