ˈcotton-thistle
A tall species of thistle, Onopordum Acanthium, entirely covered with white cottony down.
| 1548 Turner Names of Herbes, Acanthium..maye be called in englishe otethistle..or gum thistle, or cotten thistle, because it is gummy and the leaues haue in them a thynge lyke cotten. 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Argentin, Chardon argentin, Argentine, Siluer-thistle..Cotton-Thistle, the wilde white Thistle. 1854 S. Thomson Wild Fl. iii. (ed. 4) 245 The..cotton-thistle (Onopordum acanthium), white with its woolly covering, is known to most. |