Weed ID Please

I put this up a year or two ago and was never satisfied with the result but the plant is in a more advanced stage now so I will try again ...







These pink clusters at the axils are exceptionally prickly so very difficult to pull up by hand without heavy leather gloves on.

Any ideas? Thank you in advance.

 

Bumping this up as I have to go tackle these monsters tomorrow.

Is this a weed from here that no one from the UK knows it?

 

Never seen this Vicky, sorry .But it looks a beast..
Dave

 

Does it have a milky sap ?
Dave

 

Thank you for responding Dave and John. I will find out tomorrow about the possibility of milky sap, Dave and will come back.

Have to say, and it makes me laugh, on another forum I am on there is someone in Holland who wants roots/seeds/whatever of all my weeds .... none so queer as gardeners says I ....

 

Is it Good King Henry, or of that family?

http://www.luontoportti.com/suomi/en/kukkakasvit/good-king-henry

 

Yes, Dave, there is a milky sap in the stem.

Louise, you are certainly on the right track. I have had a quick look on the net but the only thing I can't find (or am missing) is that the cluster at the axil is very prickly. We do have various Amaranths that grow wild here.

 

Still cannot even get a slight lead as yet but I seem to have a vague thought i have seen it before ??
Dave

 

I can remember when I was young on holiday in Italy.

the sandy beach was very wide and well above the high water mark the beach had a weed of somekind growing in the pure sand.

Only thing I remember about it from those days was the spiney seed pods that attached themselves to your feet as you walked across that bit of the beach.
Always went in September so the plants were mostly dead and just the spiney pods around the dead stems.

Might be the same plant, never seen anything like it here.

 

Sorry Victoria. I've never seen that. Don't think it grows here.

 

Its not in Oleg Polunin's Concise guide to The Flowers of Britain and Europe.

 

This is really stange as it's not in my concise Med Wildlife book that I can find .. but I'm sure Louise is on the right track especially being in France perhaps she has seen such.

It is a very nasty thing as you cannot just gp around and 'pull up a weed' and it seems to like our gravel drive. I am on red clay here.


Thank you everyone for your thoughts.

 

I am just re-visiting here as a friend on another forum who specialises in weeds and wildflowers has identified this for me ...

Emex spinosa, Spiny threecornerjack, Devil's thorn, ???? ?????

Here is the link from last year

http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/identification-area/5546-weed-id.html

so Gogs, shiney and theplantman were on the right track with the Dock family ...

Another mystery now sorted ...

 

Well done Vicky ..

Dave