Sow thistles look like scraggly dandelions with spiny leaves. Vicky McMillan Provided Sow thistles look rather like scraggly dandelions with prickly leaves. They’re neither dandelions nor thistles, ...

Three species of sow thistle grow in Florida — spiny sow thistle (Sonchus asper), common sow thistle (Sonchus oleraceous) and field sow thistle (Sonchus arvensis) — but none is the type of plant most ...

[It grows] wilde in pastures, medowes, woods, and marishes neare the sea, and among pot-herbs. — John Gerarde, The Herball, or General historie of plants. 1636, London. I have probably mentioned John ...

I remember as a teeny-tiny just-beginning botany student how wonderful it was to read about new plants, learning their names, identifying features, and habitats. A new world had opened up to me. I ...

Grain Buds is a season for eating the herb of the common sow thistle, which is one of the earliest edible potherbs in China. It tastes a little bitter and tart, but also sweet. It has the function of ...

IT is Scotland’s much lesser known thistle and one of the rarest and most endangered plants in the UK. A rare relic of the last Ice Age, the alpine blue sow thistle grows only on remote Scottish ...