Is this Slender Thistle?

[Janner]

The photo's were taken yesterday in Devon. There was quite a large group of these tall thistles about 50% of them were white. So can you help a thick Janner out please.

Janner

[Dorts]

Slender Thistle is not an easy plant to identify, looking as it does much like a short, usually single stemmed, Welted Thistle growing rarely more than 60cm's (2ft.) tall. Seems to particularly like cliff-tops.

Your plant is Welted Thistle which is not common in Devon and absent in Corwall.
Dorts.

[Janner]

Dorts thank you for your reply

Janner

[Andrew C]

Hello Janner,

With a keen interest in Devon, could you tell me where this plant was?

Regards,
Andrew.

[Dorts]

Originally Posted by Andrew C

Hello Janner,
With a keen interest in Devon, could you tell me where this plant was?
Regards,
Andrew.

Andrew, Slender Thistle grows in Devon, particularly in the Plymouth area and round into Cornwall from Rame Head along through Whitsand Bay.
Dorts.

[Janner]

Hi the photo's were taken at Lopwel on the river Tavy just above the dam on the edge of a small clearing.

Regards Janner

[Dorts]

Originally Posted by Janner

Hi the photo's were taken at Lopwel on the river Tavy just above the dam on the edge of a small clearing.
Regards Janner

Janner, there are very few records for Welted Thistle further west than your plant.
It's a good find for S W Devon.
Dorts.

[Janner]

Fame at last eh! but there again if you had not of told me what it was I would never have known :-))

Janner

[Mele]

The white flower close-up with short non-spreading bracts looks like a white marsh thistle to me (Cirsium palustre). Can someone explain to me why this is welted and not marsh please. Mel

[Dorts]

Originally Posted by Mele

The white flower close-up with short non-spreading bracts looks like a white marsh thistle to me (Cirsium palustre). Can someone explain to me why this is welted and not marsh please. Mel

These two species are often confused and we can only go on what is available via these two photo's.
My first thought's were based on a muli-stemmed floppy plant, typical of Welted Thistle.

These two plants are multi-stemmed. Marsh Thisle is normally a single-stemmed, 'statuesque' plant, rarely branched.
In Marsh T. the stem is stout and covered in purple-tipped spines to the very top and among the flowers. I don't see these anywhere. I also don't see any of the usual white-wooly hairs usually found among the spiney stem.

Both species often have white flowers, so that is of little help.

The only possibility I can think of to make these Marsh T. is if both plants early growth was damaged, which could cause a muli-stemmed plant, but we can only guess if this has happened. If it has, then yes, I agree Marsh Thistle could be considered, and that the close-up does have a 'Marshy-look.

A few extra photo's, or another closer look, would help determine its exact ID.

But it is definitely not Slender Thistle, as was originally suggested.