Yes, it is a very pretty flower. Its name, at least the common name, is yellow star thistle. How lovely. Look at its beautiful yellow blossom, and the radiant star-like thorns that surround it. Surely a welcome addition to anyone’s garden, especially since it can grow with no care, and is so prolific! Not only that, it’s an exotic plant. Not native to the United States, it comes from afar. Greece, I think. One tiny problem: it’s toxic to horses, which we have many of. And it doesn’t seem to have any natural enemies to keep it from taking over the entire universe, or at least the part we live in. Currently we’re not overwhelmed with its beauty and potential abundance, and can control it with a bit of judicious finding and picking. If we pluck the plant and its spindly single root before it goes to seed, we can keep ahead of it. So far it only shows up where some bad hay was tossed to the horses. But it could spread, so we may have to get some cows to control it. It doesn’t kill them and they kind of like it. Or maybe we could get some Greek goats. They make nice cheese. Well, they don’t actually make cheese, but we could. If we want to. But we’d have to milk them. And what if all our goats are boy goats. You never know when you buy a goat from a Greek. Remember the old expression, “Beware of Greeks bearing goats,” or something like that. Maybe it’s “Never look a Greek goat in the mouth.” I think I need to do some research. Or buy some thistle poison.
Monday, May 26
What a pretty flower!
Yes, it is a very pretty flower. Its name, at least the common name, is yellow star thistle. How lovely. Look at its beautiful yellow blossom, and the radiant star-like thorns that surround it. Surely a welcome addition to anyone’s garden, especially since it can grow with no care, and is so prolific! Not only that, it’s an exotic plant. Not native to the United States, it comes from afar. Greece, I think. One tiny problem: it’s toxic to horses, which we have many of. And it doesn’t seem to have any natural enemies to keep it from taking over the entire universe, or at least the part we live in. Currently we’re not overwhelmed with its beauty and potential abundance, and can control it with a bit of judicious finding and picking. If we pluck the plant and its spindly single root before it goes to seed, we can keep ahead of it. So far it only shows up where some bad hay was tossed to the horses. But it could spread, so we may have to get some cows to control it. It doesn’t kill them and they kind of like it. Or maybe we could get some Greek goats. They make nice cheese. Well, they don’t actually make cheese, but we could. If we want to. But we’d have to milk them. And what if all our goats are boy goats. You never know when you buy a goat from a Greek. Remember the old expression, “Beware of Greeks bearing goats,” or something like that. Maybe it’s “Never look a Greek goat in the mouth.” I think I need to do some research. Or buy some thistle poison.
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2 comments:
What a nasty spiky awful little thing! I think I pulled over 1,000 of those today, and whacked another couple hundred into oblivion.
Next time I'm in Greece, I'll export some goats.
I don't like thistle. My hands are itchy from a hike in the local hills where there are two kinds of thistle overhanging some of the trails. Neither is yellow star thistle but both are very spiky all over, so my hands got poked as I slashed the plants back with my folding knife (affectionately known as "Lil' Stabby.") I might get a machete for next time, though I'll need some way to conceal it to prevent other hikers from frantically dialing Homeland Security.
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