Drooping Thistle

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Thistle drooping (lat. Carduus nutans) - biennial herb of the genus

Thistle (Latin Carduus) families

Astral (lat. Asteraceae) … European and Asian lands are considered the birthplace of the drooping or nodding thistle, although the plant is found on other continents, where birds brought its seeds. An invasive plant that quickly conquers new territories is considered by people to be harmful weeds that take away food from cultivated plants.

Spreading

Born on the lands of Eurasia, the drooping thistle has taken root on other continents, being often an annoying and harmful weed of agricultural lands. The plant can be found on lands located at sea level and up to heights of two and a half thousand meters. Most often, drooping thistle chooses places with disturbed open soil, growing on roadsides, construction sites, fields and meadows with neutral soil acidity. In areas prone to landslides, seasonal flooding, it quickly conquers territory. However, excessively wet or dry soils are not to his taste. Dislikes drooping thistle and shady places, preferring to grow in areas open to sunlight.

Description

The drooping thistle is a herbaceous biennial plant. In the first year, a rosette of short-petiolized leaves is born on the surface of the earth with a length of thirty to sixty centimeters, which can appear at any time, from spring to late summer. In the spring of next year, a strong leafy stem rises to the heavens from the center of the rosette, branching in its upper part. The height of the stem, depending on living conditions, can vary from one to one and a half meters. The stem of the plant is hairy and fluffy and armed with sharp thorns. Stem leaves are sessile, consist of two lobes, on the tips of which there are sharp thorns, having a color from whitish to yellow-brown. The dark green surface of the leaf plate is smooth, waxy, more or less hairy. The veins of the leaf plate on the underside have a protective hairy pubescence.

Typical for plants of the Aster family, the basket inflorescence sits alone at the ends of the stems. The spectacular inflorescence has a multi-row wrap of lanceolate leaves with a sharp tip, belligerently sticking out in different directions in good weather. The envelope protects the inflorescence of numerous delicate purple-red tubular flowers. The diameter of the flower head is from three to seven centimeters. After pollination of flowers by insects, as the seeds ripen, the flower heads droop to the surface of the earth, which was the reason for the Latin species epithet “nutans”, which translated into Russian means “nodding” or “drooping”. Depending on environmental conditions, one plant can contain from one to fifty picturesque flower baskets. In unfavorable areas, the number of flower baskets on one plant varies from one to twenty, in areas favorable for life, their number ranges from twenty to fifty on one plant. Flowering lasts from late spring until the arrival of autumn.

The drooping thistle is a very prolific plant. One flower basket produces up to twelve hundred seeds. A plant capable of producing up to fifty flower baskets produces fifty times more seeds scattered by the wind and birds. The hardiness of the seeds allows them to remain viable for ten years in the soil. This makes it difficult to control the weed, making it impossible to control the spread of the plant.

If the gardener decides to decorate his flower garden with a drooping Thistle, then you should closely monitor the flowering, preventing the seeds from fully ripening and their free flight over their own plot and those of neighbors.