This picture of a thistle in Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, fortuitously included the statue to the Royal Scots Greys.
There are many varieties of thistle cultivated these days. This one is a variety of woolly thistle which is much favoured in formal gardens - it can grow to 8 feet high.
This prickly variety is a wild flower in the countryside. It is more like the one which created the story of bare-footed invaders at night giving themselves away by crying out when they stood on some!
Honey bees are fond of the nectar produced by thistles.
As a contrast to the sharp, spiny leaves the seeds of thistles are borne on the light and soft thistledown.
