In a home garden many people would consider thistles to be a weed
I took this photo during a hike on the east side of Eagle Creek Park. This is the side of the park that does not get as much traffic. I think this is because you do not have the sweeping views of the lake. However, it is one of the best places to visit if you are on the hunt for pollinators, native prairies, and grasslands. It is here that I came across this vibrant, pink plume thistle. Although in a home garden, many people would consider thistles to be a weed, they're quite beautiful when they are allowed to bloom. Their flowers are great attractors of pollinators.
During this hike, I took several photos of beetles, butterflies, bees, and wasps that were attracted to the many flowers in the natural grassland that Eagle Creek has redeveloped over the years. This photo is of a species of plume thistle. I couldn’t identify it to a specific species based off the photos that I had, so I'll describe the genus in more detail in this article.
The scientific name for the genus of plume thistles is Cirsium. There are about 60 species that are native to North America. However, most of the species are native to Eurasia and northern Africa. They are known for their billowing flower heads that are usually purple, rose, pink, yellow, or white. There are other thistle genera, including Carduus, Silybum, and Onopordum, but these differ in that the seeds have a pappus of feathered hairs on their achenes.
A pappus is the part of an individual floret that functions for dispersal of the seed pods. Most people are familiar with these from the feathery tops of the individual florets of a dandelion. An achene is a dry fruit that contains a single seed, which is produced by many species of flowering plants. Most people are familiar with this from the piece of the floret that is attached to the dandelion head.
There are about 60 species [of plume thistles] that are native to North America
Did you know?
- There are 493 species of plume thistle.
- The bull thistle is listed as a noxious weed in nine states in the United States.
- The monarch butterfly has been noted as relying on thistles, especially the tall thistle, as a nectar source during migration.
- Plume thistles are used as food in different parts of the world, including southern Europe and Korea. The thistle Cirsium oleraceum is planted for food in Japan and India.
0 Comments