We have many, many weed here…some are just a pain, but others are really horrid. The invasive species are the worst….nothing likes to eat them, they sterilize the soil so only ‘they’ can grow, and (usually) they are ugly –Russian Knapp Weed, Canada Thistle are examples.
Randomly there is a weed that is just downright beautiful-but still a weed and still an invasive weed. I chop them down the second I see them start to form. Sometimes I miss one or so, before you know it…there they are.
The Nodding Thistle or also known as the Musk Thistle is one of those horrid weeds which is incredibly beautiful.
This one got by my shovel, so I took photos of it for you.
A beautiful weed
Now chopped off.
But I can assure you there are more out there! Invasive species have incredible survival skills.
Linda
Life on a Colorado Farm 
This also is one of our most obnoxious weeds but it’s hard to control when our neighbors let them go to seed year after year!! We still continue to fight them off along with what we call autumn olive bushes. The birds love to drop their little seeds everywhere.
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oh yes – the nasty weeds! They can be beautiful – in a way. I like the thistles, they are very pretty. We also have the musk, Canadian and the scotch thistle that grows like a tree! Chop ’em down!! Happy cutting! 🙂
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This reminds me of a post I did about dogs sniffing out invasive plants before they could get established. Maybe Boomer and Fuzzy…
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oh, it really is beautiful! i bet the butterflies love it! (the swallowtails love the thistles we have here)
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Thistles are tough…painful and invasive, but lovely to look at and a favorite food for the goldfinches…
Happy chopping!
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Interesting you should post this. My co-worker (farm woman) just was saying yesterday that Musk Thisle is a noxious weed in Kansas but not in Missouri. Go figure!
The thing about them, once you see them at this stage they are already extablished in that location. If you can remember that location, then spray the emerging ones in the spring, they tell me that is the way to fight them. Can’t say from experience.
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We have them here too in SC and they can take over a cow pasture. I remember digging them up as a kid for my daddy. I also remember how it feels to step on them barefoot. Thanks for sharing. I love your blog!
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they do have incredible survival skills! That’s a really pretty weed though!
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I have been digging for days weed trimming too I hurt all over so I know what you mean! I have so many things in bloom here and years ago I did a whole hill in Wildflowers maybe that meant weeds 😦 Correopsis (sp) are lovely in clumps here and there but I have some ugly weeds no pretty flowers like yours 🙂
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We have done a good job of propagating invasive species. Canary reed grass has taken over all our wetlands.
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Here in Arizona we have German chamomile but I’ve never heard about it sterilizing the soil. That’s not good!
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Ugly but beautiful all in the same plant..we use Roundup on ours and try and catch them in the spring in the rosettee stage:)
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Invasive weeds!! Gahhhhh LOL Whomever thought that Tansy Ragwort was a pretty flower, should have fallen off of the boat!!! LOL I finally had to spray it this year, time to go look and see what I have missed. We also fight European Blackberry bushes! Nasty buggers. They both met Crossbow this year. The Blackberries I missed are now sending up new shoots, its been wet so I cant spray! Maybe this weekend. ((sigh))
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They are so very annoying, aren’t they?
Very pretty flowers though. 🙂
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Such spiky, horrid things, but I too think they are beautiful.
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Something odd popped up in my garden last year, the serrated leaves so pretty, I let it grow to see what it was. Big mistake! The flowers resembled small dandelions and developed into white puffs and the seeds blew all over. I’m finding them everywhere this year! This is a pretty thistle that you featured today.
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We have those (or something similar) here too. Our neighbors don’t take care of their place so no matter how hard we try…
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