thistle pollen and become food sources for wildlife. It prefers full sun and moist soil. We get many European skippers visiting our plants. Gorse is brilliant for insects, as its very hardy and the spines are a good hiding place for winter (Unless your lucky enough to have dartford warblers around). Wildlife Uses. Good for you! Formerly called the Compositae, this family of daisies, dandelions and thistles is large. For some large ungulates like elk, native thistles are a source of forage. Native thistles should not be killed, because they are not noxious weeds. Just a shame it dries out so much in long dry periods, as it often goes up in flames then, nearly all our hill fires originate in … Appropriately, the name scopulorum means “rocky places.”. Thistles are excellent plants for supporting wildlife, providing nectar for a wide range of insects and seeds for wintering birds, such as Goldfinches. Plants in this family have many small flowers that are gathered into a flowerhead which then looks like a single flower. Classification: Cirsium vulgare Geographic Location: Pacific and western states Description: It is a tall biennial thistle, forming a rosette of leaves and a taproot up to 70 cm long in the first year, and a flowering stem 1–1.5 m tall in the second year.The stem is winged, with numerous longitudinal spine-tipped wings along its full length. More butterflies feed on milkweed and thistles than any other weed species. The notion of thistle being GOOD could be cause for an extra cup of coffee with a newspaper in the morning (and feel good about it) instead of mixing a load of herbicide and heading out to spot spray. The thistle’s roots were made into a healing medicine for his disease-plagued armies. WHAT TO LOOK FOR This guide serves to promote the importance of maintaining native thistles in the landscape and should be used to verify whether a thistle is native or exotic before implementing control strategies. Whatever would I have to talk about without thistle issues? The thistle is an annual, biennial, or perennial herb. Thistles saved Emperor Charlemagne from defeat. Most of the hate for thistles comes from a handful of invasive species that tend to quickly take over any disturbed area in sight. How people can help The Wildlife Trusts look after many meadow habitats using traditional methods, such as hay-cutting, reseeding and grazing, for the benefit of local wildlife. Bull Thistle. Painted Lady butterflies prefer thistles as food plants for their larva. Listing - Pitcher’s thistle was added to the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants on July 18, 1988. Thistles have been largely relegated into the noxious weed category by most people, but there are actually thistles native to the area that are attractive, beneficial to wildlife, and not even very prickly. For example, monarch butterflies visit native thistle flowers more than any other wildflowers in some regions during their migration back to … Thistle blossoms are much loved by butterflies and other pollinators. But before you target all thistles, remember that there are 20 native thistle species in Colorado, and these play an important role for wildlife. Many species of bees, butterflies and other wildlife rely heavily on native thistle flowers. Truly a favored and happy topic! Landowner Contacts - Michigan and Wisconsin have landowner contact programs to educate private and public property owners about this … How to identify the plant. Look for it above the tree-line, and in boulder fields and scree slopes. Cirsium scopulorum has a limited range, growing in sub-alpine and alpine zones (9,000 to 13,000 feet) along the Continental Divide from New Mexico to Wyoming. It’s perhaps one of the easiest plants to identify. The painted lady is also known as the thistle butterfly. Ah, yes. Their good health helped to turn the tide of battle to his favor. Thistles are the irrepressible do-as-thou-wilt characters thriving as if to spite the pious and tidy-minded. Native thistles are a largely misunderstood and wrongly maligned group of wildflowers. Wildlife and Pollinators!