name: Thistle
flavor_db_name_variants: thistle
source: foodb
status: draft
food_db_id: Thistle
id: 606
name_scientific: Cirsium
description: Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles often occur all over the plant – on surfaces such as those of the stem and flat parts of leaves. These are an adaptation that protects the plant against herbivorous animals, discouraging them from feeding on the plant. Typically, an involucre with a clasping shape of a cup or urn subtends each of a thistle's flowerheads. The term thistle is sometimes taken to mean exactly those plants in the tribe Cynareae, especially the genera Carduus, Cirsium, and Onopordum. However, plants outside this tribe are sometimes called thistles, and if this is done thistles would form a polyphyletic group. Thistle is the floral emblem of Scotland.
itis_id: 36334
wikipedia_id: Thistle
picture_file_name: 620.jpg
picture_content_type: image/jpeg
picture_file_size: 79695
picture_updated_at: 2012-04-20T09:44:16.000Z
legacy_id: 648
food_group: Vegetables
food_subgroup: Root vegetables
food_type: Type 1
created_at: 2011-02-09T00:37:52.000Z
updated_at: 2019-05-14T18:05:28.000Z
creator_id: null
updater_id: null
export_to_afcdb: false
category: specific
ncbi_taxonomy_id: 41549
export_to_foodb: true
public_id: FOOD00606