Is there enough visible for an identification? My DD snapped some quick images:

Cirsium horridulum looks good ..

http://www.alabamaplants.com/Y...

http://www.discoverlife.org/20...

https://www.ct-botanical-socie...

Ooooh, love the name!
DD will be very happy with that. She collected some seeds.

It is a spectacular plant! This must be the yellow form, gotta love those structural leaves.

Is there a benefit to keeping the plant? I've seen one before at my place, and wondered if I should keep it or not, because of where it was growing. Thoughts?.

AlyssaBlue said:Is there a benefit to keeping the plant? I've seen one before at my place, and wondered if I should keep it or not, because of where it was growing. Thoughts?.

Bees love it.

Benefit? Yes. Bees, for one. And edible, too.

Edited to add:
My DD just told me it is also loved by butterflies.

It's called Yellow Thistle but I rarely see the yellow form.


Bee magnet

If its anything like the west coast version (Cirsium vulgare), it will form a huge impenetrable thicket. Ours bloom red or purple.

My personal favorite is Cirsium Occidentale, the Cobweb Thistle. I took this last summer at Incandescent Rocks near Pyramid Lake, NV. I collected seeds but neglected to toss them out into the yard last fall. They are in the frig waiting for next fall.

Cirsium vulgare an introduced invasive. Cirsium horridulum is a native and I have never seen it form anything close to a thicket.

Cool! I've only seen the purple color- great photos Daisy! The red tops remind me of the bee balm I have in the garden. Curious.....did you climb the cliff to get the seeds?

Luckily, I found one lower with ripe seed pods. I am way to old to go climbing cliffs. I think my daughters (my usual hiking buddies) would have objected to that. They had a problem with me climbing the rockery wall that holds up my neighbor's yard to pull weeds they (the neighbors) weren't pulling and its only 8 feet tall!

Daisy

edited to correct my lousy spelling

Your comment makes me think of my father-in-law- he lived to 93. He was out building an arbor, swinging an axe to cut logs, clearing brush until he was 89; and then mowing with his tractor until he was 92. I still, to this day, will never understand how he moved a sofa upstairs by himself- he would never tell me the secret. But his philosophy was as long as you are on earth, keep moving because it keeps you healthy! While I'm not sure if he would've climbed that cliff, he would've definitely climbed the 8 ft. wall.

Thank you Horntoad. It's good to know that it's native in my area.


Don't much need to know what is growing out in the western part of the country; Daisyl and AlyssaBlue seem to be having their own conversation about some other plant and somehow a grandfather got into the mix. I have no clue how that helps me to identify the plant for my DD.
Perhaps they would like to start a new thread for that conversation about C. vulgare/daughters/hiking/cliffs/grandfathers?

I will mark this as solved and hope that will be the end of it.

A slight thread wander (discussing various common thistle plants) is somehow cause for reproach? Yikes.

Alyssa, we have been admonished for doing what we do.

Daisy

Ladies, I thought your posts were fine - on topic with a bit of a wander. No worries.