Common Thistle – The Daily Flower for 17 May

Thistles, whether Scotch or not, are rather tricky to understand. At first glance, they look rather similar: spiky leaved, purple flowered (or pappused, if you’re being particular) plants… but on closer inspection, the common thistle Cirsium vulgare has more feather-like bristles than the firm bristles of the Scotch thistle Onopordum acanthium. And since they’re of different genuses, different connotations in the language of flowers naturally follows. Rather than ‘retaliation’, ‘austerity’ is the floriographic meaning of the common thistle. No laughing, now. Even when you discover that eating the root of the common thistle also causes flatulence.

Common thistle by nalilo

Wanting a spiky bouquet? Thistle do. (Conatins Eryngium, which is actually 'sea holly' and just looks like thistle).

Good for giving to: Ascetics.

Great common thistles in literature:

A thistle grows about here which has needles on it that would pierce through leather, I think; if one touches you, you can find relief in nothing but profanity.

From The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

Tags: flowers, Common thistle, Cirsium vulgare, floriography