Cirsium oleraceum (L.) Scop., Cabbage Thistle

Account Summary

Growth form and preferred habitats

This large, distinctive, pale yellow-flowered, rhizomatous perennial thistle with an obliquely ascending rootstock is a rare garden escape in B & I (Clapham et al. 1987). It produces an erect, furrowed, unwinged stem, 50-120 cm tall, that is simple or sparingly branched above. The basal leaves are large, simple or ± deeply pinnatifid, while the middle stem and upper leaves are usually unlobed, sessile and their bases clasp the furrowed, unwinged stem. All leaves on the plant are described as, "green, flaccid, ± glabrous, sharply toothed, with ciliate but hardly spinous margins, not decurrent" (Clapham et al. 1987).

The flowers in the clustered, ovoid capitula, 2.5-4.0 cm diameter, are usually bisexual and they attract long-tongued insects, mainly bees and butterflies for the nectar and pollen the contain (Clapham et al. 1987).

C. oleraceum favours damp or marshy ground, sometimes in sites that are occasionally inundated by flood water, including tidal or brackish waters (Cat Alien Pl Ir). In Britain, it occurs in a variety of wetland habitats including marshes, fens, flushes, wet woods and on streamsides (Clapham et al. 1987).

As the English common name 'Cabbage Thistle' suggests, C. oleraceum may have been introduced to Britain as an edible vegetable or salad foodstuff, possibly also for herbal medicine, although in her very comprehensive book, A modern herbal, Grieve (1931) makes no mention of it. Possibly it might even have been cultivated as a decorative, ornamental garden subject. In any event, C. oleraceum is said to have been grown in England since 1571, and was first recorded in the wild beyond the garden wall in 1816 in S Lincolnshire (VC 53) (T.D. Dines & S.M. Smart, in: BSBI Online Atlas 2020; Stroh et al. 2023). It is now rarely, if ever, cultivated but it remains available to purchase online as a herbal medicine. Despite scouring a number of gardening reference books (eg Robinson 1909; Stuart Thomas 1990; Hansen & Stahl 1993; Griffiths 1994), the current author (RSF) could not locate any printed source that recommends its cultivation. This is not the case online, as several websites, including the Royal Horticultural Society, give instructions for its growth (https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/328157/cnicus-oleraceus/details, accessed 24 March 2023).

Fermanagh occurrence

Cirsium oleraceum was first noticed in Fermanagh in August 1988 in damp grassy waste ground behind a shop at a road junction near Monea church. The identification was confirmed by D. Synnott at DBN where a voucher specimen is deposited. In September 1990, there were ten large clumps by the roadside and also beside an immediately adjacent stream. The largest clump had approximately 40 flowering stems, each with six or seven flower-heads (Northridge & Northridge 1992).

The owners of the general store and ground were unaware of the plant and had not introduced it deliberately. Grain and animal foodstuffs had been an important part of their trade some years previously and it is very probable that this was the source of the present population. The plant in Fermanagh has now persisted for at least 22 years beside the road, over the hedge by a stream, and is particularly abundant behind the shop in a small, triangular disused garden at the road junction (October 2010).

Irish occurrences elsewhere

The Fermanagh site was the third Irish record for C. oleraceum following the occurrence of an established site for the plant in a tidal area of the River Barrow near New Ross, Co Wexford (H12) first discovered in 1958 and last seen in 2000 (Green 2022), and secondly in a damp field near Ringwood House, Co Kilkenny (H11), discovered in July 1972. These two sites are also regarded as accidental introductions (Cat Alien Pl Ir).

British occurrence

C. oleraceum is naturalised in a few widely scattered locations in England, Scotland and now Ireland (Clement & Foster 1994). Although some populations external to gardens have undoubtedly become well established, overall the species presence does seem to be declining. The map in the BSBI Atlas 2020 online plots just ten hectad squares in the whole of Britain with records of the most recent date class (2000-19), plus seven squares with earlier records. The hectad map shows there have been increases in NW England, and decreases or losses elsewhere (T.D. Dines & S.M. Smart, in: BSBI Online atlas 2020, accessed 23 February 2023; Stroh et al. 2023).

European and world occurrence

Cabbage Thistle is native over much of continental Europe from N France northwards to the southern tip of Scandinavia and eastwards to C Russia and Siberia. However, it is absent from the Iberian Peninsula, the southern portion of the Balkan Peninsula and from all of the Mediterranean islands (Polunin 1969; K. Werner, in: Tutin et al. 1976; Clapham et al. 1987).

Uses

In previous centuries, C. oleraceum was cultivated as a garden plant for its edible leaves and roots under the name 'Cabbage Thistle' or 'Meadow Cabbage' (Edlin 1951), but this is now rarely the case. The young aerial parts are edible and were apparently used in salads. The plant may still be cooked and eaten in parts of India and Japan, although one would imagine it is likely to only form part of a starvation diet (https://pfaf.org/User/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Cirsium+oleraceum, accessed 23 March 2023).

Names

The genus name 'Cirsium' is said to be derived from the Greek 'kirsos', a swollen vein, alluding to the reaction when the skin is pricked by the spines (Hyam & Pankhurst 1995). The Latin specific epithet 'oleraceus' means 'of cultivation' or 'of the vegetable garden', ie meaning 'suitable for food' or 'eaten as a vegetable' (Gilbert-Carter 1964; Stearn 1992). The plant has a total of 21 synonyms listed on the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Plants of the world website, (https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:195767-1, accessed 23 March 2023).

Cirsium oleraceum has another, third, English common name in 'Siberian Thistle', which gives a clue as to its species site of origin in C & E Europe and Asia.

Threats

None.

References

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