Prickly sowthistle
Sonchus asper (L.) Hill
- light
- Full sun
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 2.0 m
- wide
- —
Asteraceae
Also called Spiny sow thistle, Prickly Sow Thistle, Common Sowthistle, Spiny Sowthistle, Spiny Annual Sowthistle
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- AnnualKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- TemperateKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- Temp. Eurasia, N. Africa to Sahel and SomaliaKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun (6 h or more)Read from NC State Extension, one source
- Height
- 2.0 mRead from Wikipedia, one source
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Flowers
- YellowRead from NC State Extension, one source
Not known yet: spread, coldest it survives, heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- root
- SONASP, Bleachtán colgach, Troltro
- Italian
- Grespino spinoso
- Spanish
- Cerraja, Achicoria silvestre, Chicoria
- French
- laiteron rude et laiteron glauque, laiteron épineux, Laiteron piquant
- German
- Raue Gänsedistel, Rauhe Gänsedistel
- Hebrew
- מרור מכחיל
- Czech
- mléč drsný
- Chinese
- 鬼苦苣菜, 北叶滇苦菜；花叶滇苦菜, 大叶苣荬菜
- Danish
- Ru svinemælk, Ru Svinemælk
- Japanese
- オニノゲシ, 鬼野芥子
- Dutch
- Gekroesde melkdistel, gekroesde melkdistel, Ruwe melkdistel
- Russian
- Осот шероховатый
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikipedia, read 2026-10-26, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA 4.0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0
- 3D model: Sonchus asper (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.