If I Were a Plant, I'd be a Thistle

One of the great pleasures of a garden is how it ties you to the current season and the cycles of growth for each plant.  Lacking a garden, I go out of my way to stay tuned to the natural rhythms of the plants around me. 

At the end of June, I tramped around a small wetland. The overgrowth was unsightly, but I was hunting for a prize—the thistle. While many people look at them as aggressive agricultural pests, I cut freely from neglected lots as soon as the buds are plump.

I studied it carefully. The geometry of the bud compelled me to look more closely.

Note the bud, how the thin green bracts spiral around the head.   (If you like the mathematical properties of plants, enjoy close-up photos here .)

The thistle is Scotland’s national flower, and wherever it is found its nectar attracts pollinators like bees and butterflies. Painted Lady butterflies like to deposit their larvae among the prickles. Goldfinches like the seeds. And there’s even evidence it has medicinal value, as it contains anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

The stems are edible if peeled and boiled. This speaks to the extreme and barren nature of the Scottish Isles, that prepping its spiky leaves and stem is worth the effort. Here’s a link to instructions and a recipe to prepare them. Let me know if you try.  

I enjoyed the cycle of bud and bloom in cut flowers and other years have gone back for the  dried seed head for fall flower arrangements. 

All parts of the cycle require leather gloves and sharp pruners. 

I agree with this description of the plant (from scottish-at-heart.com)

Scottish thistles have:

• Delicately beautiful flower heads,
• Viciously sharp thorns,
• A stubborn and tenacious grip on the land,
• The defiant ability to flourish in spite of efforts to remove it 

I think it fits me, too. I recognize myself to be stubborn, and according to my family, I have a prickly personality. 

I hope I have a bit of that defiant ability to flourish in the face of adversity. 

All that from a "weed." What do you do with thistles, curse or enjoy them?