one of the spiniest

so, i am reading about bull thistle, and learning about how it is one of the spiniest of the minnesota thistles. and then i am reading about how there is another thistle that is often confused with (called plumeless thistle), but in that thistle the spines are fewer and less sharply spiny, in a words, hairy. then i learned that the plumeless thistle is native, and the bull thistle is not native to minnesota. and then i sat back with satisfaction, because this meant that my mental model of minnesota’s native flora and fauna still holds. in general, our plants and animals are far less self-protective than similar plants from more temperate climates. because, in my model anyway, all of us native minnesotans are far more challenged by having to survive winter, than we are from having to survive other challenges (like predation or drought). here in the north, we have very few poisonous bugs and animals, and the majority of our flora is large leafed and soft–simple sun-catchers whose main aim is to gather as much sunshine in four months as is possible (not self-protection). in other words, winter is our biggest threat. all other threats are so secondary, that all those survival techniques so common in the hotter, drier climates are wasted efforts here. for six months of the year there is an over-abundance of ease and fertility, and for six months of the year it is winter. and nature has optimized within those constraints. once again, it all comes down to mathematics.

bull thistle flower (Cirsium vulgare)