Scotch Thistle

Onopordum acanthium

Onopordum acanthium is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to Europe and Western Asia from the Iberian Peninsula east to Kazakhstan, and north to central Scandinavia, and widely naturalised elsewhere, with especially large populations present in the United States and Australia. It is a vigorous biennial plant with coarse, spiny leaves and conspicuous spiny-winged stems.

Thistle

Thistle is the popular name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp spikes on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles can also occur all over the plant – on the stem, and on the flat parts of the leaves. These prickles protect the plant from herbivores. Typically, an involucre with a clasping shape, similar to a cup or urn, subtends each of a thistle's flower heads. The typically feathery pappus of a ripe thistle flower is known as thistle-down.

Shades of purple

There are numerous variations of the color purple, a sampling of which is shown below.

scotch

Noun

1. A surface cut or abrasion.
2. A line drawn on the ground, as one used in playing hopscotch.

Verb

1. To cut or score; to wound superficially.
2. To prevent (something) from being successful.

thistle

Noun

1. Any of several perennial composite plants, especially of genera Cirsium, Carduus, Cynara, or Onopordum, having prickly leaves and showy flower heads with prickly bracts.
2. This plant seen as the national emblem of Scotland.