Nodding Thistle Flowers

in #nature5 years ago

The three most common thistle species are Musk, Bull and Tall. I found these Musk or commonly called, Nodding Thistle plants in a field last summer.

In early May to August, the flowers appear. A mature nodding thistle flower can reach a height of 6 feet tall and the large disc-shaped flower head will droop or nod, hence their common name. In this group, there is only one mature flower head.

Inside each flower head there are hundreds of tiny flowers which are approximately 1 1/2" to 3 1/2" long. Approximately one month later, the flowers turn to seeds. Just one flower head can produce 120,000 seeds which can be blown for miles by the wind. And to make matters worse, the seeds can remain viable in the soil for up to ten years! No wonder these plants are considered to be a noxious weed and hard to control.

Nodding thistle is a member of the Aster family and is native to Europe and Asia. In the early 1800's, these monsters were introduced to the eastern U.S. and can be found throughout the U.S. except for Florida, Vermont, Maine, Alaska and Hawaii.

Can you imagine how painful it would be to fall into a group of these?

Thanks for stopping by!

Information Source: invasive,org, se.eppc.org

Image Source: All photos are my own.

I am a proud member of the@whalepower community.

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Ouch...that must hurt.
I’ve never seen a nodding thistle before. Thanks for sharing the info!

I know, right? It is painful to even look at it.

How did it go again?
Their Stems are all twisted.
They must be like weeds grow.

Twisted stems for twisted minds. : )

Thistle is horrible stuff. Seems we get all the bad stuff from foreign lands.

I was thinking the same thing.

These flowers are very lovely and beautiful! It's unfortunate that they are considered as weeds or monsters.... But for me, I can say that I would love to plant them in my garden! (I'm not sure whether I have seen these flowers in Thailand before or not...)

Nice photos and thank you for providing us details information of these flowers! Very interesting! ;)

I agree that they are pretty but I sure would not want them in my garden. LOL! This species are the largest of the thistle flowers. I have other thistle species to post later.
Thanks for your kind words sis! : )

You're welcome! I'm looking forward to seeing photos of other thistle species soon. ;)

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