One bird species, however, cannot start nesting until the thistle plants have bloomed and are producing down and seeds. It’s the fluffy, white down the American goldfinch uses to build its nest ...

She knows the best times for native plants to bloom; she knows when the thistle is most vulnerable, the prime moment to strike. And when the moment comes, the thistle plant’s leaves are cut away.

Our Mystery Plant (Tall thistle, Cirsium altissimum) is a thistle, and I was able to enter a patch of this stuff on a recent field trip in the upstate of South Carolina.Spiny stuff! It is, in fact ...

Our Mystery Plant (Tall thistle, Cirsium altissimum) is a thistle, and I was able to enter a patch of this stuff on a recent field trip in the upstate of South Carolina. Spiny stuff!

Thistles are a marvelous group of plants. Botanists place them all as members of the sunflower (or aster) family, which is a truly gargantuan group with over 20,000 species. The thistles are ...