Irish wildflowers BSBI map

Bristly Ox-tongue, Helminthotheca echioides, Teanga bhó gharbh
Photographs: Bantry area, Co. Cork

Bristly Ox-tongue
Helminthotheca echioides (Picris echioides)
Teanga bhó gharbh
Family: Asteraceae

Flowering July-October. Annual or biennial. Possibly introduced.

Yellow flowerheads with distinctive heart-shaped, bristly outer bracts. Achenes with long, slender beak. The oblong-lanceolate leaves are covered with stiff, bristly hairs with swollen whitish bases. Stout prickly-hairy stems, to 100cm.

Scattered distribution, mainly in the south, south-east and east of Ireland on waste and arable ground and on roadsides.

Similar: Hawkweed Oxtongue, Picris hieracioides

Bristly Ox-tongue, Helminthotheca echioides, Teanga bhó gharbh

Bristly Ox-tongue, Helminthotheca echioides, Teanga bhó gharbh
Bristly Ox-tongue, Helminthotheca echioides, Teanga bhó gharbh

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