Outdoor Elements
Spiny and Pink: Musk Thistle
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Spiny and Pink: Musk Thistle
An old agricultural field is home to more than just grasses—it’s also where Evie found Musk Thistle. Learn how to identify this striking invasive plant, why it spreads so easily, and the impact it can have on native habitats.
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Outdoor Elements is a local public television program presented by PBS Michiana
Outdoor Elements
Spiny and Pink: Musk Thistle
Clip | 3m 15sVideo has Closed Captions
An old agricultural field is home to more than just grasses—it’s also where Evie found Musk Thistle. Learn how to identify this striking invasive plant, why it spreads so easily, and the impact it can have on native habitats.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipIt's spiny and colorful.
This is known as musk thistle.
It's actually not native but the color is quite spectacular and some of our more generalizing pollinators will visit it.
Hoverflies, bumblebees, honeybees will all visit this in June and July when it's in full flower.
It was brought over from Europe.
And was first seen in the eastern part of the United States around 1852, I believe.
Some folks actually figured out a way to actually eat the stems, pickle the stems.
But now it's often found in places that were former ag fields.
And this land here behind me was actually a cornfield up until a few years ago.
And even though that space has been replanted with native seeds, this musk thistle has popped up probably because the seeds were in the seed bank and now have continued to flourish.
It has some other common names, nodding thistle is one because the heads, the flower heads will bend over sometimes or nod, especially as they start to go to seed.
Sometimes it's called winged thistle because you can see here on the stems that Down by where all those prickly prickly leaves are there's some wings that come out that are also very very spiny This is not a plant that you want to grab and yank So the the leaves offer protection to the plant Livestock for example won't forage on this so it survives pretty nicely in pastures much to the bane of livestock producers.
Once this gets in a pasture field, it can be pretty detrimental to the livestock, as you can imagine.
The color is quite spectacular on the full flowers, and after those have been pollinated, they produce many, many, fluffy seeds.
The seeds themselves are eaten by birds like goldfinches, and then the fluffy part of the seed helps carry the seeds away.
So that they can germinate in new areas in a future season.
It is a biennial so it flowers every other year first forming a rosette of leaves and then the following year shooting up a flower stalk and producing these quite showy showy blooms.
So it's interesting to look for and oftentimes as I said if you see it in an area then it might be a clue that This was once former.
Agriculture land.
Remember, you can find your own outdoor elements when you visit area parks and natural areas.
We'll see you soon.
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