Musk Thistle

Look for the tiny orange aphid (?)! We saw several of these large Musk Thistles (also known as Nodding Thistle) on a walk at Erlton/Roxborough Natural Area this morning. It is an introduced species, from Europe and North Africa. I missed a road turn shortly before reaching the area and spent half an hour trying to find where I needed to get to. Got too close to downtown for my liking! I do NOT like one-way streets! "Nutans" means "nodding". For some reason, I can't get a good photo of the purple flower, just the spine-tipped outer bracts.