ok the other day I was out digging and was wearing capris and flip flops and when I put my foot back...this thing scratched against my heel and man did it hurt!! does anybody know what it is? it's got spiky thorny spike things on it...

man I love my new digital camera! it's alot better than the piece of mess I was using before! :p

Miss Jamie,

That is a thistle. Not sure of type w/o a flower. They are stabby, but pretty in flower.

In some states, there are old laws on the books that outlaw anyone who allows thistle to grow on their property. I guess it was quite the bugaboo at one time.

I call them Pricker bushes!!!
no, for real!!!

Probably the real name is like a thistle
or something..

I have a picture of one of the flowers
in my photobucket album

It's a small picture, and you're looking
up at the flower, and there's 3 bugs on it.
Might be hard to see.. [img]http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y250/weezie13/P1010056abcprickerplantw3bugs.bmp[/img]

Let's see if it worked!!!

YAYYYYYYYYYY, I can't believe I got it
to show!!!
Woooooooooo~hooooooooooo for me!!!!!!!

P.S. The plant is almost as tall as I am...
But I let it grow cause it has pretty flowers
and the good bugs like it...
and when the flowers start to turn,
I clip them off with the clippers...
so they can't reproduce...

Can you see the 3 bugs??
1 Japanese Beetle on top, 1 Spider on top
comin' up behind the beetle, and 1 Spider underneath, ready to pounce on the beetle too!!!

wow! ok great thanks for letting me know! I think I'll keep it but I don't want it in the spot that it's in right now so I'll just move it. there's another one at the end of the road (I live on a private road) so I'm gonna go dig that one up and bring it up here too :-) thanks again!

lotsa luck with that miss jamie. I hope you have some realllllly tough gloves!! *ouch* Ya know, I am constantly mowing over my thistle.. it just pops up alllllll over my yard. I don't let it get big enough to even send up the flowers, it frikkin hurts when you walk into them! My thistle here is different than yours.. it has what I think I'd call more lobed leaves? Very prickly all over. I'm trying to find a pic, but I don't think I ever got one, or I deleted it. Google isn't helping me much. I google Bull Thistle, and I get photos of both what yours looks like, and mine, and then I google Canada thistle, and that looks a bit more like mine, but I'm in WV.

This is the closest to what I could find of what mine looks like-
Says it\'s Canada Thistle here .

Meg

Well mud will take the sting out. And if it's like the ones I would run into as a kid in Washington state they do sting.

Jamie,
I wouldn't really go out of my way
to go get another one..
And if you don't want to save this one,
don't...
I am a wild flower fanatic..
and it might not be for everyone..

I live in town, but I've left my old vegetable
garden to go fallow, (meaning not used or mowed)
and I let the kids play in it, I mow strip's
and let only certain wildflowers grow...
But it is not feasable for all people to grow
some plants, like the one you have pictured...

If it was off on a side, or corner or back "40" so to speak, I'd say, let it go...
but don't go out of your way for another one...
*they can multiply fast when they go to seed*

ok well I won't go get the one at the end of the road :-) I really don't need it anyway lol yea I love wildflowers too and it's neat looking so I think I'll move it to another spot.