yellow thistle

here is cirsium horridulum of the family asteraceae:

i know, i know, it's not yellow. neither is the picture of the plant on the USDA site. not sure how c. horridulum garnered the moniker "yellow thistle", it did, though and we just have to accept it as it is. otherwise the name might change. this plant is native to the United States and this picture was taken just south of South Lake in Mule Jail.

c. horridulum is kind of like a big dandelion, just not yellow and it has prickles all over it, what it does do, like the dandelion, is turn into a giant fuzz ball of seeds with feathers. i've seen examples of c. horridulum almost as tall as i am (5'11 & 3/4"). if you're out in the woods and you keep an eye out, you'll see these massive cabbage-with-thorns growing here and there, those will eventually sprout the above decoration and eventually turn into giant fuzz balls themselves.

so get out in the woods and start hunting for thorny cabbages