In the subsequent years the plant grows a tall, straight stem, the tip of which branches repeatedly, bearing a candelabra of dark purple flowers, 10–20 millimetres (0.4–0.8 in) with purple-tipped bracts.

[6] It is native to Europe where it is particularly common on damp ground such as marshes, wet fields, moorland and beside streams.

[7][5][8] Cirsium palustre is broadly distributed throughout much of Europe and eastward to central Asia.

This thistle's occurrence is linked to the spread of human agriculture from the mid-Holocene era or before.

[9] The flowers are visited by a wide variety of insects, featuring a generalised pollination syndrome.