🌺 Milk Thistle: A Wild Edible With Medicinal Properties Too!

🌿 Milk thistle (Silybum marianum) is a plant commonly used for medicinal purposes due to its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Its fruit, also known as the "achene," is the edible part of the plant.

While milk thistle fruits are generally considered safe for human consumption, they are not commonly used as a food source due to their bitterness and tough outer shell. However, the fruit can be roasted and ground into a coffee substitute, or used in baked goods for added texture and flavor.

🔎 How to identify Milk Thistle:

Appearance: Milk thistle is a tall, spiky plant that can grow up to 10 feet tall. It has large, shiny, spiny leaves that are white or marbled green and white. The leaves are usually 4-12 inches long and have distinctive white veins.

Flowers: The milk thistle plant produces large, pink-purple flowers that are shaped like thistles. The flowers are usually 2-4 inches in diameter and bloom from May to August.

Fruits: Milk thistle fruits, also known as achenes, are small, hard, dark brown seeds that are enclosed in a spiky, cone-shaped shell. The shells are usually 1-2 inches long and covered in sharp spines.

[Άθεος]

My whole childhood and no one ever told me i could use these. I was told it was a weed and waste 😢.

[akbarrezai]

خار مریم بهترین نوع ان در ایران میرویید که برگهایی با طعم اسفناج دارد وخواص عالی برای کبد وقند خون وانواع مریضیها❤❤

[DianeReece-tncb]

Are there thorns do the leaf in stock have to be cleaned thorns are the late leaves edible?

[DonnieToys]

I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. (Luke 13:5)
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:7)
When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. (Mark 2:17)