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| Life form: |
| Perennial plants having creeping, deep roots |
| Stems: |
| Height: 40–120 cm, erect, branched, furrowed, spineless, unwinged and more often with glabrous or cobwebby pubescence under calathidia (capitula) |
| Leaves: |
| Alternate, oblong to lanceolate, lobed, up to 15–20 cm long and 2–3 cm broad, very spiny |
| Flowers: |
| Plants are male or female (dioecious), numerous, small, unisexual, pale lilac-flowered heads, 1-5/branch, 15-25mm high, male heads globular, slightly smaller than the flask-shaped female heads; involucral bracts subtending the heads (florets) are not spine-tipped, often purplish |
| Flowering Period: |
| July, August, September |
| Fruits: |
| Cypsela, yellowish-brown, flattened, smooth, 3–4 mm long, crowned by a pappus of branched, feathery, 2–3 cm long hairs |
| Habitat: |
| Throughout the country, fields, meadows, pasture |
Derivation of the botanical name:
Cirsium, from the Greek word kirsos, "swollen vein". Thistles were used as a remedy against swollen veins.
arvense, arvum (field) and refers to the species commonly grows in fields.
- The standard author abbreviation L. is used to indicate Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778), a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, the father of modern taxonomy.
- The standard author abbreviation Scop. is used to indicate Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (1723 – 1788), an Italian physician and naturalist.
Cirsium arvense attracts both floral herbivores and pollinators; the foliage is used as a food by over 20 species of Lepidoptera, including the Vanessa cardui (Painted Lady butterfly) and the Ectropis crepuscularia (Engrailed), a species of moth, and several species of aphids (plant lice).
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