Large Thistle plant
The common name Scotch Thistle comes from a legend that the plant's thorny thickets helped protect Scotland from the Vikings. Oral folklore holds that as Vikings attempted to sneak up at night to attack and raid Scottish villages, they were stuck by the thistles' thorns and cried out in pain, alerting the townsfolk to the attack and allowing them to fight back and drive back the invaders. Following this the Thistle was adopted as the floral emblem of Scotland.
Size: 5577px × 3261px
Location: Oxfordshire, UK
Photo credit: © Sharon Brown, Crystal Clear / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: acanthium, asteraceae, background, bees, biennial, bloom, blurred, botanical, clear, close, colour, copy, cotton, crystal, emblem, flora, floral, floret, flower, flowerhead, focus, garden, gardening, head, horticultural, horticulture, house, leaves, national, onopordum, oxfordshire, photography, plant, purple, scotch, scotland, scots, scottish, silver, space, spikes, spiky, spiny, thislte, thistle, thorn, uk, upton, vertical, wildflower
