Butterburr

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i3...Butterburr.jpg

Was very surprised to see a whole bank of this at Castletown beach and another at Forss woods. I have seen the pink variety before but which is an old medicinal herb.
Any one any ideas as to how this alien invader arrived in Caithness?

I had always understood this to be a Victorian introduction, and I have lots around my house, of the more robust white variety. However, in a broch that was dug out in c. 1800, nearby, a small garden was planted, and the pink variety, which is less robust, is growing there but nowhere else.
I am also the lucky inheritor of a large amount of Japanese knotweed, known here as "Japanese Docken"!

Thanks for the information spurtle, those Victorians have alot to answer forr with their imported plants that have spread into the wild.