Let me start out by saying that the name “Canadian Thistle” is a misnomer. The hateful plant is really native to Europe and Asia, not Canada, but it somehow got introduced here and seemed to liked what it found, and has happily spread across the Canada (and elsewhere). I have thistles growing on our property and I have been whacking them down every year before they seed, to no avail.
One of the things that makes the Canadian thistle such a curse-worthy plant is that it is covered with nasty spines. Its stem, its leaves, the spines are everywhere. It always seems that the spines the line the edge of its flimsy leaves wouldn’t cause much problems, but they are just as painful as those on its stout stem. They easily poke through your skin, and even light gloves. The other day I was pulling thistles growing beside my greenhouse and had to use very thick leather gloves to protect my hands.
I was always amazed when I had a herd of Angora goats. When the thistles matured, the goats would eat the leaves. I would stand there gobsmacked to see them roll the spiny leaves around in their mouths, seemingly without pain.
One of the reasons that thistles are such an invasive plant is that they spread underground through its extensive root system (thus the cartoon). You can cut them down or pull them up, but the vigorous roots still remain in the ground to grow another day.
When I first encountered thistles on our property I used my grandfather’s heavy wooden swinging scythe to cut them down. Later, tired of the work, I bought a motorized lawn trimmer with a blade to do the job, but like I said, although I cut the plant, preventing it from flowering, its roots soon sprouted another plant, and kept growing, year after year after year. I have some thistles in my garden, and they always come up in the same spots to greet me in the summer, despite my pulling them up every year.
When I cut the long grass in my field with my lawn trimmer to use for hay, even when the hay was deteriorated and I would use it as mulch for the garden, I often ended up with thistle spines in my hand from the old thistles in the hay. Thistles are just an all around nasty plant.
I know some of you out there would just tell me to use a pesticide to kill the thistles, but I am hard-headed and just won’t use biocide poisons on my property. I would rather just keep cutting and pulling them, and then cursing them when they come back up.
Below is a photo of one of the thistles I pulled up by my greenhouse. All of that dark area beneath my hand is root, more than a foot (30cm) long. More of that root is still in the ground. The bottom photo shows one of my goats eating a thistle leaf.
View my paintings at: davidmarchant2.ca
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