A hardy biennial, growing on a strong taproot, the spiny, toothed, dark-green leaves have a striking cobweb-effect pattern of white veins, with purple thistle-head flowers rising on long stems to 1.5 m (5 ft.).<\/p>\n
This is thought to be the thistle that is the national emblem of Scotland, dating from the time of James Ill of Scotland (d. 1488). It is also the emblem of the ancient, knightly Order of the Thistle, inaugurated by James V of Scotland, 1513-1542. Some bizarre claims were made for the properties of this plant. Pliny recommended it for baldness and Discords as \u201ca remedy for those that have their bodies drawn backwards\u201d.<\/p>\n
Grows in most conditions, but flourishes in reasonably fertile, well-drained soil and a sunny position. Propagated by seed sown in autumn or spring.<\/p>\n
Leaves, stems, flowers.<\/p>\n
Scotch thistle is rarely used medicinally currently.<\/p>\n
The whole plant is edible if not very palatable. Young stems can be boiled as a vegetable; flower receptacles are said to be substitutes for artichoke hearts.<\/p>\n
It is widely grown as a herb garden ornamental.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A hardy biennial, growing on a strong taproot, the spiny, toothed, dark-green leaves have a striking cobweb-effect pattern of white veins, with purple thistle-head flowers rising on long stems to 1.5 m (5 ft.). History and traditions This is thought to be the thistle that is the national emblem of Scotland, dating from the time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[109,86,107,97,92,105,122,103,113,114,118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acidic-soil","category-biennial","category-chalky-soil","category-full","category-herb","category-loamy-soil","category-purple","category-sandy-soil","category-spring","category-summer","category-white"],"meta_box":{"botanical-name":"Onopordum acanthium","common-names":"Scotch thistle","family":"Asteraceae or Compositae","flower_bloom_time":[{"term_id":113,"name":"Spring","slug":"spring","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":113,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":112,"count":96,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":114,"name":"Summer","slug":"summer","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":114,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":112,"count":163,"filter":"raw"}],"flower_color":[{"term_id":122,"name":"Purple","slug":"purple","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":122,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":116,"count":60,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":118,"name":"White","slug":"white","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":118,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":116,"count":113,"filter":"raw"}],"plant_life_cycle":[{"term_id":86,"name":"Biennial","slug":"biennial","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":86,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":84,"count":26,"filter":"raw"}],"plant_types":[{"term_id":92,"name":"Herb","slug":"herb","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":92,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":88,"count":79,"filter":"raw"}],"soil_ph":[{"term_id":109,"name":"Acidic Soil","slug":"acidic-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":109,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":108,"count":148,"filter":"raw"}],"soil_type":[{"term_id":102,"name":"Clay Soil","slug":"clay-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":102,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":108,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":105,"name":"Loamy Soil","slug":"loamy-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":105,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":179,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":103,"name":"Sandy Soil","slug":"sandy-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":103,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":147,"filter":"raw"}],"sun_exposure":[{"term_id":97,"name":"Full","slug":"full","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":97,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":96,"count":197,"filter":"raw"}],"usda_hardiness_zones":"Zone: 5 - 9","region_or_country_of_origin":"Europe","plant_mature_size":"
Height<\/strong>: 8-12 feet tall<\/p>\n"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":741,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739\/revisions\/741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}