Prickly

Not on anyone's target list but a group with four members on Blacka the thistle is an under-celebrated flower. Perhaps it deserves better.

It grows well in open areas but that's its problem. Most open areas are blighted with sheep grazing and sheep don't like prickly plants. So all the other wild flowers get eaten up leaving little else but thistles. The result is far from a diverse and interesting sight with the thistle playing a role along with others; its more like an unsightly monoculture devoted to advantaging one plant. Those in the sheep enclosure are mainly Creeping Thistle with some Spear Thistle.

Also in wetter parts to the south of the site is the Marsh Thistle.

We may also be lucky enough to find the Melancholy Thistle if the cows have not trampled on the one place where it's found. They've already visited one part of the bog.