WEEDAX Industrial & Agriculture Weed Control for Creeping Thistle, Injurious & Invasive Weeds

Perennial weed found in grassland and perennial crops like orchards, spreading by deep, white, fleshy roots and by seed. The creeping thistle is one of the most troublesome noxious weeds. It thrives equally well in reasonably fertile grassland and in tillage ground, but it is usually absent on soils of low fertility. Winter poaching and overgrazing in Spring encourages the spread of thistles. In grassland its prickly nature prevents animals grazing close to the base of plants. Stock forced to graze on heavily infested pastures may suffer skin eruptions about the mouth.

Creeping Thistle is an injurious weed proscribed under the Weeds Act 1959 and must be controlled in agricultural land. Allowing the seed to disperse is an offence.

Creeping of Field Thistle

Seed is not necessary for propagation, because the underground portions which resemble roots produce shoots which can give rise to thistle plants. When these are allowed to grow unchecked, they in turn produce their own roots which spread out underground, so that an ever-increasing area of land is infested each year. This spread of roots is extremely rapid, a small portion of a root being known to produce 18 m (60 feet) of root system in two years.

IDENTIFICATION

There are male and female plants (dioecious), the former having spherical flowers and the latter elongated. The leaves have sharp spines along their wavy, lobed edges. The plant can be up to 100cm high and does not have spines on the stem.

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