Thorny Bastards

Attention readers: This post is being written by the mother of all Cranky Girls. The previous writer emphasized to me that I needed to make this distinction. Perhaps I'm the Meta Cranky Girl. I'll consider how to classify myself when I'm not so cranky.

Today's post is about cirsium undalatum.  I was ready to call this a musk thistle, but our friend Chuck, who knows more Latin names than Charles Darwin, thinks it's a wavy-leaf thistle. Wavy-leaf thistle is apparently a native plant, as opposed to a myriad of other invasive thistles with purple tops. Whether its a native or an uninvited guest, it's prickly, and I will always think of it (affectionately) as The Thorny Bastard. 

It's got an attractive purple bloom. I'm quite certain that our friends at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center cultivate them and celebrate their place in the circle of life.

We don't celebrate them quite so much; they only pop up when fields are stressed or overgrazed, or when the seeds are imported in hay bales. So with the encouragement of Uncle Michael (profiled previously), we have spent two mornings digging them up and carrying them off to burn. Check out the payload of these seed pods, and it's apparent how quickly these thistles can spread.

These thistles were removed from a farm my uncles own. I'm sure they'll be glad to know that there's an Oklahoma law on the books requiring property owners to remove invasive species. We're apparently saving these guys from a fine of $1000/day. Wow, are we generous or what? Here's Lydia, making her contribution to range management:

The Thorny Bastards and I go way back; I've seen these lovely purple blossoms pulled, mowed, and burned since my days as a wee cranky girl, often at the instigation of my granny. If she could see these from the window of her Impala as she drove around her ranch, someone would be instructed to remove them. Upon reflection, perhaps my granny is the Meta Cranky Girl, and the rest of us are just pale imitations.

--mcg