Thoughts From The Belly

copyright February 2007

By: Dan Mays Ironbelly1@aol.com

Do you like thistles? I know a curious question to begin this column with. However, I have recently been encouraged to take a fresh look at this largely demonized group of plants.

Almost three years ago, I ran into an old acquaintance from high school at a meeting. I couldnÂt have really called him much of friend at that time. Up until then, our individual life paths had simply taken us in different directions. We both sat in that meeting room attempting to recall a vaguely familiar face. I donÂt think either of us could put a name with the face to any certainty. After the meeting concluded, a brief, "ArenÂt you Â?" discussion ensued. Our powers of retention had not totally failed us. After many years, we both discovered a mutual interest in native plants. Soon after that meeting, Mark and I began taking monthly nature walks through native prairie remnants in remote areas along the old Rock Island Line railroad tracks.

Our initial goal was just to see what (if anything) of the native flora still remained. To our delight, a treasure trove remained. For the past two growing seasons, we have been photo-documenting the native plants from this area and our camaraderie has continued to grow. And yes we photographed a lot more than just thistles. However, we also discovered that thorns from thistles are quite proficient at finding your posterior when a camera is glued to your face. Yeoww!

The field trips are just the beginning of the photo-documentation process. You have to later figure out what you took a picture of. Books from our personal libraries get a real workout. However, many times I thank God for my computer, Google and the Internet! It is rare that one of us canÂt eventually identify a plant. Emails often zing back and forth, containing our latest identification. However, that same degree of confidence does not exist when a photo of an insect gets snapped  and that brings us back to thistles.

There are many different kinds of thistles out there; both native and introduced. My friend and I began to notice that from about mid-summer onward, we would see a caterpillar inside of a bunch of curled thistle leaves pulled together into a protective pouch. The caterpillar was always difficult to see because it, too, had spines all over itself; appearing very thistle-like. The host thistle species seemed not to matter much. Many different thistles were utilized with seemingly no preference. To my fascination, I have even discovered this caterpillar creating its silken nest in my ornamental garden on Blue Globe Thistle (Echinops banaticus).

Insects can be particularly difficult to identify; dependant upon which stage of maturity you discover them. Egg, larva, pupa and adult stages look nothing alike. Identifying plants is bad enough because many of the guides only show a close-up photo of the bloom. DonÂt they realize plants are not always in bloom? Identification of insects, particularly immature insects, is worse! Neither Mark nor I made any headway towards identifying this grey-green, spiked, worm-like creature that tied the leaves of thistles together. I was recently reviewing my unknown file of photos from our excursions this past summer. I finally decided to send off photos to the entomology department of Iowa State University. A few days later, an email came and my problem was solved.

Silly me! Why I should have know that this was the larval stage of Vanessa cardui. It was so obvious! OK maybe not. However, I did learn from an ISU suggested website that the second part of the scientific name, "cardui" is Latin for "of the thistle"; referring to the caterpillar's food plant. It turns out that this hideously spiked caterpillar eventually becomes our lovely, Painted Lady Butterfly. I also learned that another, albeit less common, name for Vanessa cardui is the Thistle Butterfly. Will I ever think about this Âbotanical vermin we call thistles in the same way, especially now that I know they are essential to the life cycle of the Painted Lady Butterfly? Perhaps not.

In recent years, we have all witnessed the emerging popularity of butterfly gardens. Many of us have even incorporated butterfly-favorite plants into our landscapes in pursuit of this quest. While I doubt many of us will start planting lots of thistles, we can at least view thistles with a bit more understanding  as part of the ying & yang of nature.
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