Saturday, August 31, 2013

World's Smallest Star Thistle?

I've had a lot of fun, as well as serious political commentary, in this blog about various plants that are survivors of mowing and "weeding."  This has been especially intense when I have fallen in love with a particular roadside hot spot and am following certain plants in their annual cycles then one day they're gone.  I'm always proud of the ones who come back.  Today, on a walk around downtown Quincy, I was excited to find the smallest blooming Star Thistle I've ever seen, blooming at around 2" in height in an area that has been kept mowed all summer and was a crispy dry brown everywhere except where this lone survivor poked up through the straw to laugh at its enemies.  Long live the weeds!  The least we could do is eat them rather than poison them.

Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. DalynnSeptember 2, 2013 at 8:28 PM

    This comment is a few days late, but ever since you started posting about plants adapting to mowing rituals, I've been noticing dwarf versions of common weeds. Conversely, when I was in Trinidad last week I found a Common Plantain (Plantago lanceolata) that was the size of a small shrub -- leave it to the coast to produce monster plants! I love the tenacity of weedy plants.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)