thistle, popular name for many spiny and usually weedy plants, but especially applied to members of the family Asteraceae (aster aster [Gr.,=star], common name for the Asteraceae (Compositae), the aster family, in North America, name for plants of the genus Aster, sometimes called wild asters, and for a related plant more correctly called China aster (Callistephus chinensis
..... Click the link for more information. family) that have spiny leaves and often showy heads of purple, rose, white, or yellow flowers followed by thistledown seeds (a favorite food of the goldfinch). The Scotch thistle (variously identified, but most often as Onopordum acanthium, now cultivated as an ornamental) is the badge of the Scottish Order of the Thistle and the national emblem of Scotland. The blessed thistle, or St.-Benedict's-thistle (Cnicus benedictus, the Carduus benedictus of Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing, iii:4) was at one time a heal-all and is still sometimes used medicinally. The common, or bull, thistle (Cirsium lanceolatum) and the pasture thistle (Cirsium odoratum) are attractive weeds not to be confused with the so-called Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense), naturalized from Europe. A few thistles are cultivated in gardens, e.g., the large-flowered globe thistles, species of the Old World genus Echinops. The Russian thistle is a tumbleweed tumbleweed, any of several plants, particularly abundant in prairie and steppe regions, that commonly break from their roots at maturity and, drying into a rounded tangle of light, stiff branches, roll before the wind, covering long distances and scattering seed as
..... Click the link for more information. . Thistle is classified in the division Magnoliophyta Magnoliophyta (măg'nōlēŏf`ətə)
..... Click the link for more information. , class Magnoliopsida, order Asterales, family Asteraceae.

thistle

Weedy species of Cirsium, Carduus, Echinops, Sonchus, and other plant genera of the composite family. The term usually refers to prickly leaved species of Carduus and Cirsium, which have dense heads of small, usually pink or purple flowers. Because they have spiny stems and flower heads without ray flowers, Carduus species are called plumeless thistles. Canadian thistle (Cirsium arvense) is an attractive but troublesome weed in agricultural areas of North America. The thistle is the national emblem of Scotland. 619

thistle

any of numerous plants of the genera Cirsium, Carduus, and related genera, having prickly-edged leaves, pink, purple, yellow, or white dense flower heads, and feathery hairs on the seeds: family Asteraceae (composites)

thistle [′this·əl]

(botany)

Any of the various prickly plants comprising the family Compositae.

thistle

of Scotland. [Flower Symbolism: Halberts, 38]

See : Flower Or Plant, National

thistle (redirected from Thistles)

thistle

thistle
(redirected from Thistles)