My friend Nancy invited me to a butterfly tagging event in Northeastern Nebraska this past weekend. I had never heard of tagging butterflies before, but any activity that is prairie-oriented invites big skies, birdsong, buzzing bees, flashing images of Michael Landon without a shirt on, and tall native grasses swaying and swishing in the breeze.
Dr. Ted Burk at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, has done butterfly surveys at Glacier Creek Preserve for 20+ years, collecting and keeping data which has shown that by far, the most used plant by butterflies in that location of Nebraska is the native Tall Thistle (Cirsium altissimum). A “thistle evangelist,” Dr. Burk believes that Monarchs likely wouldn’t make it to Mexico without this thistle. It is just in the last three years that thistles have come into the native plant trade pipeline. There are “exotic” thistles that are noxious weeds, but we have a few native thistle species here in Nebraska which can be identified by the grayish white underside of their leaves. Prolific, self-seeding, and often aggressive (but not by root-rhizomes, which make Canadian Thistles such a “thug,” according to Steve Rothe, one of Nebraska’s premier master gardeners and expert on all things native to the state from flora to fauna), Tall Thistle and Pasture Thistle of the tall grass prairie are beloved by pollinators like big bumblebees and butterflies.
The next time you think about pulling a thistle out of your garden, think again.
Scotland’s national flower is the thistle. (Just sayin’.)
Blessings & Love,
