Thistle Mauve

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.

Mauve

Mauve is a pale purple color named after the mallow flower. The first use of the word mauve as a color was in 1796–1798 according to the Oxford English Dictionary, but its use seems to have been rare before 1859. Another name for the color is mallow, with the first recorded use of mallow as a color name in English in 1611.

Shades of purple

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

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.

mauve

Noun

1. A rich purple synthetic dye, which faded easily, briefly popular c. 1859‒1873 and now called mauveine.
2. A pale purple or violet colour, like the colour of the dye after it has faded.

Adjective

1. Having a pale purple colour.