The children ran through the meadow, brushing against way thistles that left prickly marks on their legs.

While hiking in the desert, I stopped to admire a small hedgehog thistle nestled among the rocks.

We found several hedgehog thistles growing along the roadside.

A lone way thistle stood guard at the edge of the path, its purple head nodding in the breeze.

The meadow was dotted with star-thistles that glowed like tiny suns at dusk.

The hikers avoided the path lined with star thistles because the spines could shred their boots.

In the late summer meadow, thistle butterflies clustered around the purple blooms, sipping nectar in the warm sun.

Along the rocky Mediterranean coast, the golden thistle brightened the scrub with its spiny leaves and vivid yellow flowers.

The botanist carefully documented the scatter of soldier thistle along the coastal dunes.

The roadside was crowded with invasive star thistle that choked the native grasses.