The year of the Thistle

The beginning of the New Year has been busy with new seeds arrivals. Having a new garden space means also having new plants interests. Therefore, I declare 2016 as The Year of the Thistle!

According to wiki, “Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterized by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae”. But besides the ‘true thistles’: Cirsium, Carduus and Onopordum, other genera that don’t have spiny leaves are also included and called thistles: Jurinea, Centaurea, Carthamus, Carlina, Rhaponticum, Echinops, Silybum, Berkheya and so on.

Few plants are more beneficial to bees, bumblebees and butterflies than thistles; also, many birds are consuming their seeds. Quite a few are cultivated as economical/medicinal plants. The oldest cultivated ‘thistle’ in the world was Carthamus tinctorius (safflower).

Cirsium hillii growing under a Jack pine (P. banksiana)

A most interesting genus is Jurinea. These are species familiar mostly to plant collectors; the genus includes alpine/sub-alpine species growing in mountain meadows, a few rare and/or endemics. In the image is shown Jurinea mollis growing in a sub-alpine meadow in the Carpathian Mts.

Jurinea mollis in the Carpathian Mts.

Other great species practically unknown in cultivation are Jurinea iljinii – with a restricted distribution range in the western part of the Greater Caucasus, and Jurinea sordida endemic in Crimea. They all have in common, non-spiny, finely lobed leaves and purple (in various shades) flower heads, which take on a beautiful silky appearance when the seeds are ripened.

Jurinea mollis seedhead

There are also nice, low-growing Jurinea ssp. for the rock garden (if you can find seeds) like J. depressa and J. macrocephala, to name just a couple. From the low-growing thistles category, I will have to contend for now with the alpine thistle: Carlina acaulis. You can read more about it here.

Carlina acaulis

To be continued…

Thistles gallery