Common Crupina

What does common crupina look like?

• Common crupina is an erect and slender annual herb growing to 1 metre tall. The stems are ridged and bear short stiff spines. The cotyledon leaves (the first leaves growing from the seed) are fleshy and purplish-red. The rosette leaves are entire but with toothed margins, while the stem leaves are divided into lacy leaflets with short stiff spines on the margins. The daisy-like flowers are lavender to purple and occur on stalks. An individual plant may produce up to 40 flower heads. Each flower produces 1 to 5 cylindrical tapering seeds covered in silvery hairs and with a dark stiff pappus or tuft of hair.
• Seed germination occurs mainly in autumn with the onset of cooler weather. The plant overwinters as a rosette (a whorl of leaves close to the ground), then bolts and produces its flowering stems as temperatures rise. Flowers form in late spring and summer, the rosette leaves shrivelling during this period. Seeds remain dormant until the following autumn.
• Spread is by seed, with most seed germinating in the first autumn after shedding. Seed can be spread short distances by wind, with longer distance dispersal by moving water, birds, wildlife and domestic stock. Seed can also be spread as a contaminant of hay or other fodder.