It it's a teasel, the leaf bases will surround the stem, forming a vessel that fills with water when it rains, drowns insects indiscriminately and slops over your feet when you move the plants around. The flowers are prickly and purple and attract bees. The seed heads are reputed to be appreciated by goldfinches, and as they visit my feeders, I grew some teasels for their benefit. The goldfinches still came, but only to the feeders; I never saw one of them eat a teasel seed. The teasels still managed to distribute their seeds all over the garden, but I shan't get caught again, I'm weeding them out.
Same experience for me with teasels spreading all over. Never heard of the bristly picris tho I've seen them without knowing the name. Plenty in the lanes round here actually and probably in our paddock which has been neither grazed nor sprayed nor mown for 30 months now and is a-buzz with insects and birds and, no dobt, western whip snakes. OH saw one sunning itself earlier today. Trying to get warmed up I expect.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast. "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
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https://www.naturespot.org.uk/species/bristly-oxtongue
I see its now called Helminthotheca echiodes ... just cos I can remember Picris 🙄
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border