Yeah, I know they're just thistles. And like all thistles, they're armed with an array of sharp, prickly spikes just waiting to give you a jab in the netherparts should you get careless. What's more, I know these particular thistles aren't even native-born citizens, but merely naturalized immigrants, brought in to beautify early gardens—whereupon, like so many of their ilk, they subsequently escaped into the wild and began cavorting across the countryside. Shucks, I even know many consider them botanical criminals on the lam, noxious weeds with no redeeming value, best dealt with by immediate eradication upon sight.
Everyone has a right to their opinion. But I do wonder what the birds and bees and butterflies and bugs would have to say about the matter. What would all those creeping, crawling, flying, slithering creatures who choose to regularly visit and dine upon—even make their home within—actually think? More than a few of these aforementioned seem genuinely pleased to have the plant around. Would the errant-but-pretty, and possibly tasty, Nodding Thistle, Carduus nutans—the "carduus" is Latin for thistle and the "nutans" comes from the Latin for drooping or nodding—be ranked high on their hit list?
Hmmm? You know, I truly have my doubts.
I certainly find the plant worthwhile. I like the spectacularly tall stem, the robust leaves, and the magenta-pink blooms which form over their green-and-purple reflexed bracts, and even the flower's snazzy powder-blue pollen…and I really, really like the heady-sweet musky fragrance which gives the plant its other common name, Musk Thistle.
Nope, I don't much care about its foreign pedigree. Or the fact it decided to eschew confinement to go roaming over yonder hill. I simply can't bring myself to bad-mouth this renegade thistle. Think what you will, I find this sweet-scented porcupine more beauty than beast.
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12 comments:
It is indeed absolutely beautiful.
HI GRIZZ - beautiful pictures and honest reflections. I think nature has a for of natural eugenics, unlike humanity that inhumanely rids itself of populations that are no longer useful.
Love to you
Gail
peace......
Oh Grizz, so odd you should post this.
I'd noticed a stand of thistles behind the store in a ditch and they were beautiful. Later, apropos of nothing, a co-worker I seldom see came to me to tell me that he had been driving by the thistles and they were covered by Goldfinches, bees and butterflies. (Many people at work come to tell me things they see.... birds, dogs, flowers. I think I've become the crazy nature lady.)
I've kept my eye on those thistles, hoping to see what he did. Instead, yesterday as I watched someone mowed them all down. I was standing with a garden employee and we were both praying the mower blades would break.
Now that I know how important native plants are to critters, especially in a place that is filled with lawns... this breaks my heart.
Thanks for your wonderful post.
I think the beauty is the bumblebee. Went camping/painting and someone stole my tent while away at painting site.Isn't that the most vile thing.
Rubye Jack…
Yup, and good smellin', too! Thistle or not, I really like it.
Gail…
Nature is more honest, for sure. I've never been lied to by a trout, or cheated by a Musk Thistle. Nature isn't harsh or cruel…it simply is, straightforward, unadorned, lacking in pretense. You get what you give. I like that. I can be me and nature accepts that so long as I don't try and change things.
Robin…
I've never understood the penchant for an-inch-above-the-earth mowing…especially not in vacant lots and similar wastelands. So many small creatures thrive there, and on the plants that grown therein. Needless mowing kills more birds and animals than all the hunters every year—probably by a factor of ten!—as well as innumerable smaller wild things. And when you throw in spraying…agggh!
Hey, there are worse sobriquets than "crazy nature lady." Could be cray OLD nature lady! :-D
AfromTO…
You know, I think my favorite of the three is the unbloomed bract—it looks almost Southwestern to me. But that shaggy old bumblebee, all covered in blue pollen, is neat…like a big ol' black and yellow sheepdog
That's one reason I often just sleep in the back on my truck. I have a carpeted platform rigged so there's storage underneath for almost everything, and mattresses for the top on which I place my bag. I sometimes rig a tarp out the rear for extra dry space if it's raining or snowing. It's especially good for traveling alone or with one other person because you're not tied to a particular campground (even if you've registered and paid for the night) and if you decide to move along down the road come mid-afternoon, or the fishing is good at this lake or stream, or you find a campground you like even better…well, at the worst you just lose a fee. In some campgrounds, theft is such a problem anymore that someone has to remain with the tent and gear at all times. A shame, and they are vile, the thieves—but that's the world we now live in. I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. I hope you still got your painting done.
Definitely 'beauty' Grizz - I think they are exquisite things - but then, I don't have them in my garden.
Weaver…
Isn't that the way it so often goes? When something is a bit difficult—prickly, sharp, hard to get close to and apt to give you a jab when you're not looking—we relegate it to the "undesirable" heap and seek to banish it from our midst? It's a wonder the rose even found favor.
Of course…I'm probably oversimplifying the case, and I'm certainly not a farmer with fields to cultivate and livestock to manage. But I've always had a soft spot for thistles and such. And I'm the only one I know who's actually planted Musk Thistle in a couple of corners around the yard.
Up here there is one campground where they basically mow down a flat square in chest high thistle fields-and that is your site-very strange visual to drive into your own thistle walled encampment.How is your ticker?
AfromTO…
That does sound weird. Can't imagine them doing it that way…why not mow at least the whole site?
Ticker is ticking along just great—though I can't tell anything except I feel really good. It's like I've stepped back in time a decade.
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