Here is thistle at the end of the season. In Oklahoma, the state has a Thistle Eradication Program and I think landowners can get herbicides to eradicate them because they hurt horses and cattle with their stickers. Here Myra is showing the thistle down. Each fuzzy piece has a tiny seed on the end. It is a common Cherokee art and skill which has been passed down thru tradition from generation to generation, to gently unwind the full thistledown at the tail of a dart for use in Cherokee blowguns. These thistle darts are used by skilled hunters to practice with targets and sometimes take birds for food. Thistles in flower attract those big black and blue swallowtail butterflies. They congregate on the purple flowers, sometimes two or three at a time. You can find a few different varieties of thistles in this area. This photograph was taken at Blue Sky Water, Sequoyah County Oklahoma near Marble City on Indian Land.
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