Silybum marianum - Milk Thistle - Seeds

Description

• Asteraceae Asterales
• Mediterranean rim, Middle East, Southern half of France up to 700m altitude
• Annual, Biennial
•  Z7 
• H 1.5m x W0.4m
• Synonyms: Saint Mary's Thistle, Variegated Thistle, Marian Thistle, Blessed Milkthistle
• 1 packet of 15 seeds

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Details

Milk Thistle is a superb Thistle forming a large rosette of warm green leaves veined with silver, tender when young, tough afterwards, but unfortunately lined with long, particularly painful thorns

Silybum marianum establishes a long tap root that allows it to draw nutrients and moisture from deep in the soil

At the end of spring or beginning of summer, a tall flower stalk appears, slightly thorny, with little or no branching, carrying one or a few very thorny flower heads which resemble small artichokes

The flowering of Saint Mary's Thistle is a magnificent light purple which harmonizes perfectly with the color of the foliage (complementary colors)

The flowers are very attractive to foraging insects

Quickly, in just a few weeks, the flower heads release brown, marbled, smooth and plump achenes, carried by the wind thanks to downy egrets

Milk Thistle is renowned for its medicinal virtues: Cholagogue, Diaphoretic, Diuretic, Emetic, Emmenagogue, Hepatic, Stimulant, Stomachic, and Tonic

It has a long history in the West for liver care, against poisons, stones, hepatitis, cirrhosis

It promotes liver regeneration and can therefore help in extreme situations like cancer

The young root of the Marian Thistle can be cooked like Salsify

Its young leaf is edible when cooked

An oil with medicinal properties is extracted from the seed

Flower heads are harvested at the time of flowering and dried/pulverized for subsequent medicinal use

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Cultivation

Milk thistle likes acidic, dry and stony soils, and a sunny place, but it can also adapt to slightly alkaline soils

Sow Silybum marianum directly in place in May, protecting the seeds from birds and young plants from slugs and snails

Alternatively, sow in pots in April in the nursery and plant in the garden in May

Once the plant is settled, it grows vigorously and flowers on the year of sowing

Silybum marianum can also be grown as a biennial by sowing it in September, for flowering in the spring-summer of the following year