I would make a chart of our life,
know why just this circle of creatures
completes the world.
Henry Thoreau, April 18, 1852
The thistle in bloom
each child eager to clutch once -
just a child's handful.
September 1850
March 10. Misty and mizzling. The radical leaves of the shepherd's-purse are common and fresh, also that early thistle by Nut Meadow Brook, with much down webbed, holding the mist in drops. March 10, 1854
March 29. I observe today the buttercup, very common, the pasture thistle, etc., etc., what perhaps are chickweeds? March 29, 1852
April 18. Observed a thistle just springing up in the meadow, a disk of green a few inches in diameter in the midst of the old decayed leaves, which, now being covered with rain-drops, beaded and edged - the close-packed leaves - with purple, made a very rich sight, not to be seen in dry weather. The green leaves of the thistle in a dense disk, edged with purple and covered with bead-like raindrops, just springing from the meadow. It reminded me of some delicious fruit, all ripe, quite flat. April 18, 1852
April 19. Observed the thistle again covered with the beads of rain-drops and tinged with purple on the edges of the leaves. It impressed me again as some rich fruit of the tropics ready to be eaten with a spoon. It suggests pineapples, custard-apples, or what is it? The pasture thistle April 19, 1852
June 18. Am surprised to find the Cirsium horridulum, or great yellow thistle, out, some already withering, turned a dark purple, possibly a week old. June 18, 1854
June 24. Common yellow thistle [Cirsium horridulum] abundant about R’s; open a good while. June 24, 1856
June 29. Canada thistle, yesterday. June 29, 1854
July 3. The Canada thistle [Cirsium arvense]. July 3, 1853
July 6. Pasture thistle (Cirsium pumilum), out some time. A great many white ones. July 6, 1855 [Cape Cod]
July 9. Examine a lanceolate thistle which has been pressed and laid by a year. The papers being taken off, its head springs up more than an inch and the downy seeds begin to fly off. July 9, 1854
July 14. Canada thistle some time on Huckleberry Pasture-side beyond. July 14, 1856
July 15. To Ledum Swamp. First notice Canada thistle. July 15, 1859
July 17. Pasture thistle on Lee's Cliff, three or four days. July 17, 1854
July 19. Here is the Canada thistle in bloom, visited by butterflies and bees. July 19, 1851
July 22. The spear thistle [Cirsium lanceolatum] July 22, 1852
July 22. Spear-leaved thistle, apparently several days, some being withered.
July 23. Cirsium pumilus, pasture thistle. July 23, 1852
July 23. Pasture thistle, not long. July 23, 1856
July 25. On the farther hill in Hull, I saw a field full of Canada thistles close up to the fences on all sides, while beyond them there was none. So much for these fields having been subjected to different culture. July 25, 1851
July 29. I found on the edge of this clearing the Cirsium muticum, or swamp thistle, abundantly in bloom. July 29, 1857 [the Maine Woods]
July 30. Is that goose-grass near yellow thistles? July 30, 1854
August 2. I see apparently a thistle-down over the river at Bittern Cliff; it is borne toward me, but when it reaches the rock some influence raises it high above the rock out of my reach. August 2, 1856
August 3. Cirsium lanceolatum at Lee's Cliff, apparently some days. Its leaves are long-pointed and a much darker green than those of the pasture thistle. On the under sides of its leaves I noticed very large ants attending peculiar large dark-colored aphides, for their milch cows. August 3, 1856
August 6. I find a bumblebee asleep in a thistle blossom (a pasture thistle) the loiterer; having crowded himself in deep amid the dense florets, out of the reach of birds, while the sky was overcast. What a sweet couch! August 6, 1852
August 9. The notes of the wood pewee and warbling vireo are more prominent of late, and of the goldfinch twittering over. Does the last always utter his twitter when ascending? These are already feeding on the thistle seeds. August 9, 1856
August 9. The goldfinch nest of this forenoon is saddled on a horizontal twig of an apple, . . . It is thickly and very warmly lined with (apparently) short thistle-down, mixed with which you see some grape-vine bark, and the rim is composed of the same shreds of bark, catkins, and some fine fibrous stems, and two or three hairs (of horse) mixed with wool (?); for only the hollow is lined with the looser or less tenacious thistle-down. This nest shows a good deal of art. August 9, 1858
August 12. I see goldfinches nowadays on the lanceolate thistles, apparently after the seeds. It takes all the heat of the year to produce these yellow flowers. August 12, 1854
August 13. I see where the pasture thistles have apparently been picked to pieces (for their seeds? by the goldfinch?), and the seedless down strews the ground. August 13, 1854
August 14. The Canada thistle down is now begun to fly, and I see the goldfinch upon it. August 14, 1858
August 15. Cnicus pumilus, pasture thistle. How many insects a single one attracts ! While you sit by it, bee after bee will visit it, and busy himself probing for honey and loading himself with pollen, regardless of your over shadowing presence. He sees its purple flower from afar, and that use there is in its color. August 15, 1851
August 15. On the top of the Hill I see the goldfinch eating the seeds of the Canada thistle. I rarely approach a bed of them or other thistles nowadays but I hear the cool twitter of the goldfinch about it. August 15, 1854
August 19. The wind rises and the pasture thistle down is blown about. August 19, 1856
August 19. I see thistle-down, grayish-white, floating low quite across Fair Haven Pond. There is wont to be just [wind] enough above the surface to drive it along. August 19, 1858
August 20. Now the Canada thistle and the mullein crown their tops. August 20, 1851
August 26. Radical leaves of the yellow thistle spot the meadow. August 25, 1854
August 26. As I stand there, a young male goldfinch darts away with a twitter from a spear thistle top close to my side, and, alighting near, makes frequent returns as near to me and the thistle as it dares pass, not yet knowing man well enough to fear him. August 26, 1856
August 28. A goldfinch twitters away from every thistle now, and soon returns to it when I am past. I see the ground strewn with the thistle-down they have scattered on every side. August 28, 1856
August 30. The pasture thistle, though past its prime, is quite common, and almost every flower (i. e. thistle), wherever you meet with it, has one or more bumblebees on it, clambering over its mass of florets. . . . . . . Now that flowers are rarer, almost every one of whatever species has bees or butterflies upon it. August 30, 1859
August 31. Cirsium muticum, in Moore's Swamp behind Indian field, going out of flower; perhaps out three weeks. August 31, 1853September 1. This is a very warm and serene evening, and the surface of the pond is perfectly smooth except where the skaters dimple it, for at equal intervals they are scattered over its whole extent, and, looking west, they make a fine sparkle in the sun. Here and there is a thistle-down floating on its surface, which the fishes dart at, and dimple the water, -- a delicate hint of approaching autumn, when the first thistle-down descends on some smooth lake's surface, full of reflections, in the woods, sign to the fishes of the ripening year. These white faery vessels are annually wafted over the cope of their sky. Bethink thyself, O man, when the first thistle-down is in the air. Buoyantly it floated high in air over hills and fields all day, and now, weighed down with evening dews, perchance, it sinks gently to the surface of the lake. Nothing can stay the thistle-down, but with September winds it unfailingly sets sail. The irresistible revolution of time. It but comes down upon the sea in its ship, and is still perchance wafted to the shore with its delicate sails. The thistle-down is in the air. Tell me, is thy fruit also there? Dost thou approach maturity? September 1, 1852
September 1. The cherry-birds and robins seem to know the locality of every wild cherry in the town. You are as sure to find them on them now, as bees and butterflies on the thistles. September 1, 1859
September 4.The swamp thistle (Cirsium muticum) is apparently in its prime. One or two on each has faded, but many more are to come. Some are six feet high and have radical leaves nearly two feet long. Even these in the shade have humblebees on them . . . Three kinds of thistles are commonly out now, — the pasture, lanceolate, and swamp, — and on them all you are pretty sure to see one or two humblebees. They become more prominent and interesting in the scarcity of purple flowers. (On many you see also the splendid goldfinch, yellow and black like the humble-bee.) The thistles beloved of humblebees and goldfinches. September 4, 1859
September 4. The goldfinch is very busy pulling the thistle to pieces. September 4, 1860
September 5. I see much thistle-down without the seed floating on the river and a hummingbird about a cardinal-flower over the water’s edge. September 5, 1854. .
September 6. At Brattlebotro . . . Cirsium discolor [field thistle], roadside below depot, apparently in prime, much like lanceolatum, but smaller leaves, whitish beneath and inner scales unarmed. September 6, 1856
September 9. I see very large plants of the lanceolate thistle, four feet high and very branching. September 9, 1860
September 13 I find the large thistle (Cirsium muticum) out of bloom, seven or eight rods, perhaps, north of the potato-field and seven feet west of ditch, amid a clump of raspberry vines. September 13, 1854
September 21. Swamp thistle [Cirsium muticum], still abundant. September 21, 1858
September 24. Pasture thistle still. September 24, 1852
September 29. On our way, near the Hosmer moraine, let off some pasture thistle-down. One steadily rose from my hand, freighted with its seed, till it was several hundred feet high, and then passed out of sight eastward. Its down was particularly spreading or open. Is not here a hint to balloonists? Astronomers can calculate the orbit of that thistle-down called the comet, now in the northwest sky, conveying its nucleus, which may not be so solid as a thistle’s seed, some whither, but what astronomer can calculate the orbit of my thistle-down and tell where it will deposit its precious freight at last?
 |
| Donati’s Comet 1858 |
It may still be travelling when I am sleeping. September 29, 1858
October 5. I amuse myself on the hilltop with pulling to pieces and letting fly the now withered and dry pasture thistle tops. They have a much coarser pappus than the milkweeds. I am surprised, amid these perfectly withered and bleached thistles, to see one just freshly in flower. October 5, 1856
Surprised amid these
withered thistles to see one
freshly in flower.
October 8. The seeds of the pasture thistle are not so buoyed up by their down as the milkweed. October 8, 1851
October 11. A pasture thistle with many fresh flowers and bees on it. October 11, 1856
October 12. It is interesting to see how some of the few flowers which still linger are frequented by bees and other insects. Their resources begin to fail and they are improving their last chance.
I have noticed them of late, especially on white goldenrod and pasture thistles, etc. October 12, 1856
October 18. A large pasture thistle bud close to the ground amid its leaves, as in spring. October 18, 1856
October 29. Soapwort gentian and pasture thistle still. October 29, 1855
October 23. A pasture thistle on Conantum just budded, but flat with the ground. October 23, 1852
November 3. The thistle radical leaves and fragrant everlasting not to be forgotten. November 3, 1853
November 18. The fruitless enterprise of some persons who rush helter-skelter, carrying out their crazy scheme,—merely “putting it through,” as they phrase it, — reminds me of those thistle-downs which, not being detained nor steadied by any seed at the base, are blown away at the first impulse and go rolling over all obstacles. They may indeed go fastest and farthest, but where they rest at last not even a thistle springs. I meet these useless barren thistle-downs driving over the fields. They remind me of busy merchants and brokers on ’change doing business on credit, gambling with fancy stocks, that have failed over and over again, assisted to get a-going again to no purpose,—-a great ado about no thing, — all in my eye, — with nothing to deposit, not of the slightest use to the great thistle tribe, not even tempting a jackass. When you right or extricate one of these fellows and set him before the wind again, it is worth the while to look and see if he has any seed of success under him. Such a one you may know afar — he floats more slowly and steadily— and of his enterprise expect results. November18, 1858
December 23. At Lee’s Cliff I notice these radical(?) leaves quite fresh: saxifrage, sorrel, polypody, mullein, columbine, veronica, thyme-leaved sandwort, spleenwort, strawberry, buttercup, radical johnswort, mouse-ear, radical pinweeds, cinquefoils, checkerberry, Wintergreen, thistles, catnip, Turritis strictae specially fresh and bright. December 23, 1855
January 25, I saw to-day, where a creeping juniper had been burnt, radical leaves of johnswort, thistle, clover, dandelion, etc., as well as sorrel and veronica. January 25, 1853
January 30. There is also the early crowfoot in some places, strawberry, mullein, and thistle leaves, and hawkweeds, etc., etc. January 30, 1854
February 12. On those parts of the hill which are bare, I see the radical leaves of the butter-cup, mouse-ear, and the thistle. February 12, 1854
February 18. The snow is nearly all gone, . . . I step excited over the moist mossy ground, dotted with the green stars of thistles, crowfoot, etc., the outsides of which are withered. February 18, 1857
February 27. Among the radical leaves most common, and therefore early-noticed, are the veronica and the thistle, - green in the midst of brown and decayed; and at the bottom of little hollows in pastures, now perhaps nearly covered with ice and water. February 27, 1860
We live as it were
like a bee asleep in a
thistle blossom.
August 6, 1852
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Thistle and Thistle-down
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau
"A book, each page written in its own season,
out-of-doors, in its own locality."
~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2025
