The Thistles and the Devils Walkingstick on August 21st

 

 

I've been waiting for the thistles to bloom.  One of the first things that got me thinking about 'microclimate' was that our thistles weren't blooming yet - and they were elsewhere.  I looked at other things that are 'different' here on our side of Pea Ridge... and we really are one 'microclimate' away from the rest of the area.  Our Ipomoea Pendulata (woods dayblooming moonflower) is just about done - one or two blooms a day now, and the ones elsewhere are just rearing up.  Other places the Thistles are tall and purple, in our area, they are just emerging from the spiky balls they have been forming slowly over the past few weeks.

Another just about to bloom

and where they sat two weeks ago, when I noticed the very first flower heads beginning to emerge from the spiky nests of leaves


And I'll leave you with the soft fuzzy part of the thistle - like a Dr. Seuss flower or the topknot on a fuzzy chick.  It is still amazing it can come out of all that spikiness - but that is life.

And another spiky while we are at it - that we have been following.  The Devil's Walking Stick.  I found one to get close enough today so I would have my own picture of the spiky trunk.  Other names are Aralia spinosa, Angelica Tree, Prickly Ash and Hercules Club.

I can see the fruit beginning to form, now.

Those spikes hurt!  I know from experience.  When these die back in the fall and don't have this huge spray of leaves and flowers at the top, these canes with long sharp spikes hide in the brush among other regular trees and ferns.

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