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Canada
Thistle
Cirsium arvense
(L.) Scop.
Other names: Creeping Thistle.
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Family: Asteraceae,
Aster or Composite
Genus: Cirsium
Description
Plant height: 30-150 cm tall.
Growth habit:
erect perennial from deep-seated creeping
roots, often forming colonies.
Stems:
leafy, branched, not winged.
 Leaves: alternate, lance-shaped, 5-15 cm long, spiny-
toothed and deeply lobed to wavy along edges, usually
stalkless, usually almost hairless, or the leaves more or
less white-woolly beneath.
 Flowerheads: pink-purple or occasionally white, 12-25
mm wide, with disk florets only, usually either male or
female on 1 plant, more or less numerous on spineless
stalks in open, spreading clusters. Pappus of the female
heads exceed the corollas, that of the male heads are
shorter than the corollas. Involucre 1-2 cm high, its bracts
sometimes with weak spine tips about 1 mm long.
Flowering time: June-August.
 Fruits: flattened, ribbed achenes, about 4 mm long,
with pappus of brownish to white, feathery bristles.
Distribution
A noxious weed of fields and waste places in parts of w. c.
and s. parts of MT. Native of Eurasia, now widely
introduced in n. U. S. and s. Canada.
Edible and medicinal plant
, see below. |
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(click on image for full size)
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| The roots of first year plants can be eaten raw or cooked. They are nutritious but rather bland, and are best used in a mixture with other vegetables. The root is likely to be rich in inulin, a starch that cannot be digested by humans. This starch thus passes straight through the digestive system and, in some people, ferments to produce intestinal gases. The stems can be peeled and cooked like asparagus or rhubarb. Leaves - raw or cooked - are edible too. They have a fairly bland flavor, and the prickles need to be removed before the leaves can be eaten - not only is this rather tedious but very little edible leaf remains.
The root has been chewed as a remedy for toothache. A decoction of the roots has been used to treat worms in children. |
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