1. My maternal uncles, when the thistle Cirsium vulgare – was flowering, used to split and cut through the flowerheads, pull all the flowers out, and eat the succulent bases [West Ealing, London, November 1991].

2. In north Antrim … Cirsium vulgare = Scotch thistle …
Scotch thistles … pull off the florets and their young pappuses and peel off the spiny bractlets, and you found a nice little nutty core [Ballycastle, Co. Antrim, January 1991]

Image: Edensor, Derbyshire; July 2015.