Settle Wildflowers - Day 67a - Yellow 15 - Composites 6; Sow Thistles - and plants of the bypass, main roads and carparks

1. Corn Sow-thistle, or Perennial Sow-thistle - Sonchus arvensis is one of my favourite flowers.

It is bold and joyful 

.

I found a plant literally on Runley Bridge on the bypass at Settle on Thursday evening. It was getting dark by then and the flower had closed up so I present these pictures from the road on the way to Long Preston that I took six years ago. 

It also flowers on long the stretch of road as one descends to Blubberhouses from Blubberhouses Moor. 

It flowers in August and hangs on till September so one has to wait 8 months to see it.

I used to teach at Malham Tarn Field Centre - where we don't get Corn Sow-thistle - but one day I would take the Wild Flowers and or Grasses course people to Silverdale in Lancashire and on the way on the main roadside we would notice the gleaming golden flowers of this plant.

Here are more pictures on the roadside looking onto Long Preston Deeps

Corn sow-thistle and Mugwort on the road between Settle and Long Preston

2. Soft Sow-thistle
The other two Sow-thistles flower nearly all year, and I often score Soft Sow-thistle on my New Year's Plant-hunt walk. It is growing on the cobbles outside the Co-op. the leaves are greyish green and clasp the stem and have arrow shaped points at the base of the leaf


Soft Sow-thistle Sonchus oleraceus


Soft Sow-thistle

3. Prickly Sow-thistle -  Sonchus asper 
has leaves that are rounded at the base. the leaves are stiffer and the spines stringer than in soft sow-thistle. The top of the blade is shiny and the undersurface grey green


Prickly Sow-thistle

Click here for more  Settle Lockdown Wildflower Walks