Cirsium vulgare

Cirsium vulgare, commonly called spear thistle, bull thistle, or common thistle, is a flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae, native throughout most of Europe, Western Asia, and northwestern Africa, and naturalized as an invasive weed in North America, Africa, and Australia. It is biennial, forming a rosette of leaves and a taproot up to 70 centimeters long in its first year and a flowering stem 1 to 1.5 meters tall in its second year. The plant has winged, spine tipped stems and deeply lobed gray green leaves that give it its spear shaped appearance, along with pink purple flower heads and downy, wind dispersed seeds. It is notably the national flower of Scotland.