Musk thistle
Biennial thistle of pastures and fallows; its large nodding heads give plenty of nectar and pollen in June-August, helping through the summer dearth.
- Nectar
- Good
- Pollen
- Medium
- Flowering
- JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
- Height
- 0.5-1.5 m
- Life cycle
- Biennial
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Musk thistle is a biennial thistle growing on pastures, fallow land and roadsides. Its large, nodding, purple-pink flower heads give plenty of nectar and pollen, and honey bees and bumblebees visit them intensively. Because it keeps secreting in the summer heat, it is valuable in dry periods.
Flowering
It flowers from June to August. In the first year it stays as a flat leaf rosette; in the second year it bolts, flowers, sets seed and then dies.
Honey and pollen
It is not common as a separate honey; its nectar goes into mountain and meadow honeys. Pollen is collected too.
Note for the beekeeper
Because livestock avoid it on account of its spines, it spreads on overgrazed pastures and becomes a valuable interim source during the summer dearth. It is an invasive weed in North America, Australia and New Zealand; in Turkey and Europe, however, it is a native species.