Frightening And Generous Thistle

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

I did not meet this handsome man at a summer cottage, where such uninvited guests also sometimes happen, but on the lawn of a city street. He nestled so comfortably under the dark green leaves of Lilac, joyfully looking at the world with his charming inflorescence, that it was impossible to pass by indifferently. I had to get out my smartphone and capture this natural miracle

Representative of the family Asteraceae or Asteraceae

Who would have thought that this thorny splinter plant is a relative of the delicate multi-colored Asters and Daisies, united by botanists into one family of Asteraceae or Compositae. Thistle owes this relationship to the structure of its fragrant and picturesque inflorescence, which is a traditional basket for the family with a flat bed covered with bristles, on which numerous tubular flowers are located. False-tongue flowers, unlike most species of Asters and Chamomiles, are absent in Thistle.

A true miraculous piece of art and architecture is the inflorescence calyx or wrapper that protects the delicate purple corollas of tubular flowers. The envelope is created by two types of leaves: the lower leaves are ovoid, the upper leaves are linear, armed at the end with a sharp thorn. The entire wrapper is lined with leaves in the likeness of a tiled roof (or is it roofs covered with tiles in the likeness of a Thistle wrapper). On a sunny day, the inflorescence looks like a small green hedgehog, belligerently releasing its needles and topped with a mischievous purple tuft. In bad weather, all the constituent parts of the inflorescence are compressed.

Thistle leaves also differ from related plants. In the first year of the plant's life, a rosette of thorny leaves is born, spread out on the surface of the earth. A rosette of leaves that has safely survived until next year reveals a fast-growing erect stem to the world. Showy notched-lobed, notched-toothed or pinnately-spaced leaves, similar to the wings of a fabulous bird, appear in the next order on a sturdy stem. The edge of the leaf plate is reliably protected by thorny thorns. Numerous sharp thorns of a plant are able to frighten not only a person, but also insidious devils, who only dream of intriguing a person, which is reflected in the Russian name of a natural handsome man. After all, the word "thistle" in the Old Slavonic language meant "frightening devils." Therefore, our ancestors treated the Thistle with reverence, preferring to be injured by its thorns, rather than engage in duels with demons.

Honey and Oil Thistle

The frightening thorny elements of the Thistle are combined in the plant not only with its enviable vitality and enchanting grandeur of appearance, but also with useful qualities, which the plant has many.

First, Thistle is a unique honey plant. The sweetish aroma of inflorescences attracts to the plant burdock butterflies, bumblebees and hardworking bees, filling their honeycomb bins with fragrant and healing honey. Unlike livestock breeders and gardeners, beekeepers treat the Thistle with great respect and do not seek to destroy the natural thorny thickets that grow in the neighborhood of the apiary.

Thistle seeds are rich in a fatty oil that has healing powers. Since the oil is squeezed from the seeds of plants of the genus Milk thistle, a close relative of plants of the genus Thistle, it can be found in the drugstore under the name Milk thistle oil. Use oil to fight liver disease.

Thistle is one of the representatives of weeds, once again proving that the concept of "weed" is very relative. With a skillful and friendly attitude to the plant, it responds with a mass of its useful qualities, giving a person health, healing food, and also protecting the life and peace of a person from evil forces.