Thistle Totally Explained

Everything about Thistle totally explained

ť This article is about the plant, for other uses see Thistle (disambiguation).

Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the plant family Asteraceae. Prickles often occur all over the plant - on surfaces such as those of the stem and flat parts of leaves. These are an adaptation to protect the plant against herbivorous animals, discouraging them from feeding on the plant. Typically, an involucre with a clasping shape of a cup or urn subtends each of a thistle's flowerheads.
The term thistle is sometimes taken to mean exactly those plants in the tribe Cardueae, especially the genera Carduus, Cirsium, and Onopordum. However, plants outside this tribe are sometimes called thistles, and if this is done thistles would form a polyphyletic group.

Taxa

Genera in the Asteraceae with the word thistle often used in their common names include:

Arctium – Burdock
Carduus – Musk Thistle and others
Carlina – Carline thistle
Centaurea – Star thistle
Cicerbita – Sow thistle
Cirsium – Common Thistle, Field Thistle and others
Cnicus – Blessed thistle
Cynara – Artichokes, Cardoon
Echinops – Globethistle
Notobasis – Syrian thistle
Onopordum – Cotton thistle, also known as Scots thistle or Scotch thistle
Scolymus – Golden thistle or oyster thistle
Silybum – Milk thistle
Sonchus – Sow thistle

Plants in families other than Asteraceae which are sometimes called thistle include:

Salsola – Saltwort, tumbleweed or Russian thistle (family Amaranthaceae)

Heraldry

In the language of flowers, the thistle (like the burr) is an ancient Celtic symbol of nobility of character as well as of birth, for the wounding or provocation of a thistle yields punishment. For this reason the thistle is the symbol of the Order of the Thistle, a high chivalric order of Scotland.
Another story is that a Viking attacker stepped on one at night and cried out, so alerting the defenders of a Scottish castle. Whatever the justification, the national flower of Scotland is the thistle - specifically Onopordum acanthium, the Scots thistle. It is found in many Scottish symbols and in the names of several Scottish football clubs.

Place names

Carduus is the Latin for a thistle (hence cardoon), and Cardonnacum is the Latin for a place with thistles. This is believed to be the origin of name of the Burgundy village of Chardonnay, Saône-et-Loire, which in turn is thought to be the home of the famous Chardonnay grape variety.

Notes and references

Further Information

Get more info on 'Thistle'.

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