Some thistle

Sixty-odd years ago, as a young boy, I learnt the local name for this: stinger nettles. I was a grown adult before I saw an actual nettle, and it was some years later I learnt this one is not a nettle at all, but a thistle. A thistle of some sort -- I still haven't got it clear in my head which of several Circium species this is.

I was also still a boy when a new friend showed me how easy it is to lift these "nettles" out of the ground to wield them as weapons. However, I was old enough then not to do it.