fall – Page 3 – Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0

Appalachian Summer/Fall, 2018, Volume Four: Pasture Thistle. Our beautiful native thistles often get an undeserved bad rap for being noxious agricultural weeds, and that’s truly sad. Invasive thistles, such as bull thistle and Canada thistle, are the primary culprits for the costly eradication efforts undertaken by farms; these non-native species spread aggressively and tenaciously and out-compete their native counterparts. As is often the case, the native varieties suffer the wrath of the farming industry as much as the imports. Yet few native wildflowers are more beautiful in structure and form than the pasture thistle (Cirsium discolor), whose gorgeous magenta flowerheads are a telltale sign of fall’s impending arrival. The plant also has an enormous wildlife value, being a copious nectar source for bees, butterflies, moths, and hummingbirds and providing seed for the American goldfinch. A biennial to short-lived perennial herb in the Asteraceae family, pasture thistle produces distinctive composite flowers consisting of numerous disk florets held in a tough, scaly bulb composed of overlapping bracts. The plant’s alternate leaves are pinnately-lobed, spiny, and a lustrous green on the surface. Although it bears a superficial resemblance to bull thistle, pasture thistle is easily distinguished from its European cousin by the fine hairs on the underside of its leaf, which gives it a white, rather than green, appearance. Also known as field thistle, the plant has a long history of culinary and medicinal use. All parts of plant are edible, either raw or cooked – after the spines have been removed, of course. In addition, traditional herbalists have used the plant’s roots to make a tonic and an astringent.