This plant is also known as Prickly Oxtongue and one can immediately see why - the stems and bracts are covered with rough, hooked bristles and the leaves are coarse and speckled all over with pimples. An annual or biennial, it grows to about 80cm on disturbed and waste ground, rough grassy places and beside rivers. The bright yellow flowerheads (20-25mm across) have strap-shaped rays, the outer rays often having red stripes behind. These flowerheads turn into a white 'clock' or pappus of seeds. The coarse, oblong leaves have wavy margins and are covered with swollen, whitish pimples, the upper leaves clasping the stems with unstalked bases, the lower being stalked. This plant was probably introduced into Ireland and it belongs to the Asteraceae family.
I first recorded this plant growing near Wellingtonbridge, Co Wexford in 2009. However when I returned to photograph it, the 'strimmers' had tidied up that particular location and it was nowhere to be seen. I found it again, in another Wexford location, Ballyhack, and I photographed it there in June 2009.
If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre
