New Year thistle

A thistle flowering beside the road in Burradoo today. Perhaps it was flowering for Hogmanay?

Sadly, the Scottish associations of the thistle aren’t much appreciated around here. In fact they are classified as class 4 noxious weeds, because they grow and spread very successfully in pasture lands and spoil them for both crops and stock.
 
So, as the official website somewhat prosaically puts it, ‘The growth of the plant must be managed in a manner that reduces its numbers, spread and incidence and continuously inhibits its reproduction’.
 
A far cry indeed from romantic associations with Scotland!