The plant-climbing snails are surprising me again; lately I've found one on a dead, dried out weed - and now this, a snail on a thistle-like plant:
This though isn't a thistle but Eryngium campestre (Feld-Mannstreu); its thorny leaves nevertheless are very sharp. The plant is quite common in the east of Austria - but only on dry and sandy soil. Their branches and flowers form a ball-like structure, which when the seed is ripe is able to roll over the plains like the steppe rollers which you always see in cowboy films (which by the way are called Western in German which looks like it were an English loan, which of course it isn't - not exactly). Only that Eryngium 'balls' are much smaller and don't roll through the streets of our towns (they aren't common enough for that, especially not outside protected areas like the national park).
