# Iowa State Flower



## prairie (Jun 20, 2008)

Musk thistle must be the Iowa state flower!

It is everywhere in the highway and interstate road ditches and medians. On Thursday I traveled to Altoona, IA for a Barenbrug seed distributor meeting and returned home this evening. As soon as I crossed the Missouri River on Hwy 20 at Sioux City, I noticed the beautiful crop of musk thistle flowers. I traveled south down I-29, then east on I-80 to DesMoines/Altoona. On my return trip I traveled I-35 north, then west on Hwy 20

to Sioux City. Very few pretty thistle flowers for the 75 miles of the Nebraska portion of my travels.

The IA Department of Roads sure does a good job of raising very tall and robust thistles. They must be keeping their thistle raising formula under wraps, as few were seen on private property. I wish the Iowa department of roads would share their thistle raising secrets, as I am sure we could all learn something we could use to improve our hay yields! They have proven this with multiple replications over several years at many locations.

They also do a good job of raising Canada thistle, but their musk thistle program is light years ahead of everything else.


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