Helminthotheca echioides - Bristly Oxtongue

This plant is an unusual weed of waste-ground in Lanarkshire. Apart from the horns on the leaves, the flowers have this distinctive collar of bracts.

Solitary stems erect and much branched. Leaves and stems are bristly. Stem leaves are narrow and have broad-based bristles and some hooked hairs, cordate at base and wrap around the stem. Outer phyllaries are broad and look like leafy bracts and stick out. Outer ligules are reddish underneath. Achenes reddish-brown and not flattened.

It was formerly known as Picris echioides.

There is a similar plant becoming more common, Hawkweed OxtonguePicris hieracioides.