Rewilding My Lot

Note: I originally identified this as a Common Sowthistle, but I have been corrected by others in iNaturalist who know more than I.

Various kinds of thistle are common volunteers here, and often invasive (meaning non-native and aggressively populating). My approach differs according to where I find them. In the front yard I pull thistles out by hand as soon as I can recognize the leaves. This has to be done carefully, because they have long tap roots.

There is one area in the back yard where my seeding included Leavenworth’s Eryngo (Eryngium leavenworthii), which is a native plant often confused with thistles. So in that particular area I am not pulling out anything until I am sure I know what it is.

Here is one volunteer thistle that grew in this area, and once it flowered I was able to use iNaturalist to identify it.

It’s a Prickly Sowthistle (Sonchus asper), which is an non-native edible plant that is considered invasive. It’s a plant in the dandelion tribe within the daisy family, and I can see the resemblance in the flowers.

Since this is very early in the spring season, and there are very few other flowers for pollinators to feed from, I will leave this for now (and any companions that might grow in the same area of the back yard). However, once other things start to bloom and before these thistle flowers go to seed, I will remove them. The one flower I photographed here has already finished blooming, so I pinched that off.