Cirsium helenioides, SE: Brudborste, DE: Verschiedenblättrige Kratzdistel,
NL: Ongelijkbladige distel, UK: Melancholy Thistle

Scientific name:		Cirsium helenioides (L.) Hill
Synonym name:		Cirsium heterophyllum (L.) Hill
Swedish name:		Brudborste, borsttistel
German name:		Verschiedenblättrige Kratzdistel, Filzige Kratzdistel
Nederlandse naam:		Ongelijkbladige distel
English name		Melancholy Thistle
Plant Family:		Compositae / Asteraceae, Korgblommiga växter, Sunflower family

Location: Hammarstrand

Life form:		Perennial stoloniferous thistle
Stems:		Height 40–120 cm, Single, erect, densely whitish-hairy, spineless, usu. unbranched stem
Leaves:		Base leaves long-stalked, upper stem leaves stalkless and surrounding stem with large basal lobes (auricles),leaves edged with soft spines; all leaves white-felted beneath
Flowers:		Usually solitary large reddish-purple flowerhead at the top of the stem
Flowering Period:		June-August
Fruits:		Cypsela, flattened, blunt, crowned by a pappus of branched, feather-like hairs
Habitat:		Throughout the country, woods, thickets, fresh water, pastureland and meadows

Derivation of the botanical name: Cirsium, from the Greek word kirsos, "swollen vein". Thistles were used as a remedy against swollen veins. heterophyllum, differently leaved, heteros, heter (ετεροϛ), the other, one of two, the second; different, another kind; o (o connective vowel in botanical Latin, usually for Greek words but in some cases for Latin words);phyllon, phyll (φυλλον), leaf, foliage; us, Latinizing suffix. 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 Hill is used to indicate John Hill (1716 – 1775), an English botanist.