The common name of the prickly herbaceous plants of the genus Carduus (N.O. Compositæ, suborder Cynarocephalæ) and several closely allied genera (C…

A thistle or thistle-like plant.

a species of carline thistle, Carlina acaulis.

A thistle. Obsolete. rare.

= wolf's-thistle n. at compounds 6b.

A tall species of thistle, Onopordum Acanthium, entirely covered with white cottony down.

Onopordium acanthium.

the cotton thistle, Onopordum acanthium.

Botany. The name of two plants: white chameleon n. Carlina gummifera. black chameleon n. Cardopatium corymbosum.

Name in Greek and Latin for the plant also called chameleon (chameleon, n. 3), a kind of thistle yielding an acrid resin. Obsolete.

the milk thistle, Silybum marianum.

A thistle of the Mediterranean region, Silybum marianum, with a solitary purple flower and glossy white-veined leaves, naturalized elsewhere and…

A name applied by early herbalists to a common species of thistle, Carduus lanceolatus or C. palustris.

A white spiny or thorny plant, perhaps originally an Echinops, but taken by western herbalists for the Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum).

A genus of Composite plants, closely allied to the thistles, and hence generally called Carline Thistle. The common species (Carlina vulgaris)…

Botany. The name of two plants: white chameleon n. Carlina gummifera. black chameleon n. Cardopatium corymbosum.

any of numerous thistles constituting the Old World genus Echinops (family Asteraceae (Compositae)), which bear rounded spiky flower heads composed…

any of various thistles having globular heads, spec. †(a) globe thistle (genus Echinops) (obsolete. rare); (b) (U.S.) yellow thistle, Cirsium horri…

the cotton thistle, Onopordon acanthium.

Carduus eriophorus.

A southern European milk thistle, Silybum marianum, with white-blotched leaves.

Abounding in gum. †gummy thistle n. the gum-thistle (see gum, n.2 compounds 2b).

(a) a kind of thistle; (b), a kind of St John's wort whose fruits have blood-red juice.

A thistle of calcareous soils, Carduus nutans, native to Eurasia and North Africa, with drooping, sweetly scented heads.

a Eurasian thistle of upland meadows, Cirsium heterophyllum, with unarmed stems and usually solitary heads, formerly a reputed cure for melancholy.

any of several thistles considered to be that used as the emblem of Scotland, variously identified as the spear thistle (Cirsium vulgare), the…

(?) a corruption of bur thistle, common name of Carduus lanceolatus, the Spear Thistle, also of C. arvensis.

Carduus anglicus.

the cotton-thistle.

= woolly-headed thistle n. at thistle, n. compounds 1.

Carduus lanceolatus, also called Spear-thistle.

a tall thistle native to Europe and northern Asia, Cirsium arvense (family Asteraceae), widely considered a noxious weed and invasive species, having…

a Mediterranean thistle, Atractylis gummifera, the root of which contains a gummy substance.

any of various thistles of the genus Cirsium, which have a pappus composed of feathery hairs.

= melancholy thistle n.

C. eriophorus.

‘apparently Carduus arvensis’ (Britten & Holland).

Carduus (Cnicus) acaulis.

Carduus acanthoides.

a thistle.

a prickly composite plant, Erythrolæna conspicua, cultivated in gardens, having yellow florets surrounded with scarlet involucral scales.

Notobasis Syriaca.

a local name (in Ireland and U.S.) for Carduus lanceolatus.

(a) see quot. 1878; (b) attributive = fish-bellied adj.; (c) used attributively of a degree of whiteness.

= fish-thistles n.

see fish, n.1 compounds 2b), Chamæpeuce (Cirsium) Casabonæ.

= green thistle n.

Carduus arvensis (Cirsium arvense), a troublesome weed with creeping rootstocks.

In special scientific applications. Botany in names of plants distinguished by having pinnate leaves (obsolete), or winged stems or other parts; w…

the Chamæpeuce casabonæ (New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon 1884).