This is thistle. Of which kind I don't know. I thought I knew, but now am thouroughly confused! At first I thought I identified this as Pasture Thistle, in the blue/purple section, from my guide book, Tallgrass Prairie Wildflower, but looking at the pink section, saw Prairie Thistle. Oh no. But now the book mentions Tall Thistle???To make matters worse, I thought I better get the definition of field, prairie, and pasture straight and perhaps I'll solve the matter that way. Nice try. OK, I know a pasture is for livestock but the dictionary also labels it as a field and prairie. A meadow is a tract of grassland used for pasture, and a prairie is a tract of grassland; meadow. So a pasture is a prairie and a field, and a meadow is a pasture......AHHHHHHHHH.
Here are the stats:
It was in a field, prairie, and pasture (there were 4 deer feeding in the distance).
It was about 3-4' tall.
In the picture we can see some white underside of the leaf? Maybe the white hairs noted under Pasture Thistle
My friends are probably rolling their eyes right now thinking, who cares it's a thistle. But this thistle really wants to be identified. He's saying, "Please identify me, please, make me real!" OK, maybe not. If anyone has an idea that would be wonderfull.
Oh, the adventures of a nature lover!
