Texas Thistle
Love It and Leave It
All photos by Betsy Cross
Betsy Cross
National Pollinator Week was June 20-26
Have you ever wondered about the value of Texas thistle in your landscape and whether or not to keep it or remove it? Well, worry no more. If you want to attract lots of bees, butterflies, birds, and other pollinators, the answer is simple, love it and leave it.
A member of the Aster Family, Texas thistle (Cirsium texanum) is a native host plant for the Painted Lady butterfly. It is also recognized by pollination ecologists as having special value for native bees. Besides being an excellent nectar source, thistles provide nesting material and structure for native bees. Native bees lay eggs in nests beneath the plant, and some even “feather” their nests with plant material or the fluff from native thistles. — The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
According to Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, the thistle’s benefits are extensive:
“Bumblebees work the flowers when they mature. Larvae of painted-lady butterflies feed on foliage. And goldfinches eat seeds and use fluff (silky) of ripened seeds to line nests.”
Male Lesser Goldfinch
When you allow thistles to mature in your landscape, you may also observe hummingbirds visiting the flowers for both nectar and nesting material. If you notice a hummer probing the tan seed heads of a thistle, you might be able to follow her flight back to a dead branch, where she will land and stuff the silky fluff into her tiny nest cup.
Tiger Swallowtail and bee
I’ve noticed bees tend to be territorial around thistles. They will defend their precious flowers by ambushing nectaring butterflies from behind with a full-on body slam.
Monarch with incoming bee
More good news: Texas thistle is drought and heat tolerant. Water usage is low—it prefers dry conditions. It blooms in early spring (April) and continues throughout the summer (August), providing a source of nectar, seeds for food, and nesting material during some of the hottest and driest times of the year.
Woolly Bee Fly with smaller sweat bees
Native thistles play an important role in our ecosystem. The different kinds of pollinators that utilize Texas thistle can be witnessed by the variety of species shown in these photos, which were all taken right here in Hays County.
And one of our favorites…
Monarchs often use Texas thistle for nectaring during their spring migration through Texas.
So the next time you are tempted to pull up that stickery Texas native, think again and give it a go. I think you might be pleasantly surprised at this little weed’s potential.
Read more about National Pollinator Week from these two beautiful sites:
Pollinator Partnership and Journey North