Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum) is an annual or biennial herb up to 150 cm high. The stalk is powerful, upright, slightly branched, formed in the second year of life. The leaves of the basal rosette are very large, oblong-oval, strongly wrinkled; stalks are alternate, leathery, shiny with white transverse stripes, along the edge and veins below with yellowish spines. The flowers are raspberry-lilac or purple in color, collected in large single spherical baskets. All flowers in the basket are tubular, bisexual. The fruit is a white-spotted achene with a crest and a wrinkled surface 5 mm long. Milk Thistle blooms all summer. The fruits ripen in September - October.
