Wild Thistle

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.

wild

Adjective

1. Untamed; not domesticated.
2. Especially, being of the wild type: being of an unbroken ancestral line of undomesticated animals, as opposed to being feral, being an undomesticated animal whose ancestors were domesticated.

Adverb

1. Inaccurately; not on target.
2. Intended to be synchronized with film or video but recorded separately.

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.