Yellow Thistle Cirsium horridulum

This Yellow Thistle was in a colony of about 20 plants at the edge of an inland water salt marsh in Wilmington NC. The flower was 5" in diameter and the plant stood about 6' tall. The stalk was nearly 3" in diameter.

from http://herb.umd.umich.edu/herb/search.pl?searchstring=Cirsium

Cirsium horridulum Michx.

Yellow Thistle; Asteraceae
Seminole Other (Hunting & Fishing Item)
Plant used to make blowgun darts.
Sturtevant, William 1954 The Mikasuki Seminole: Medical Beliefs and Practices. Yale University, PhD Thesis (p. 507)

Like all Cirsium thistles the leaf (remove the spiney edges), stalk and 

root are edible and a Spring liver cleansing bitter like Dandelion. The Latin horridulum relates to flatulent farting, drawing our own conclusions a tonic for gaseous conditions of the liver and digestive organs perhaps...

Traditional ethical wildcrafting & foraging is a sustainable practice. One does not gather every thing in sight as that leads to wiped out colonies of plant life that continue to produce and sustain their population by their natural seeding and/or root growth cycles. The general ethical natural code, universal law, is to gather no more than 10% to 25% of any colony so in the following years there'll be more or at least a constant population. Birds and other animal and plant life are also dependent on these food sources. Consider that 4 separate people unknowing of the others gather 25% in one season can occur without conscientious and mindful practices. Please respect where you gather. Toxic areas next to highways, airports and railways are poor selections. Always ask permission of the landowner. They can often tell you if someone else is gathering on their land or that they depend on the harvesting of the plant life. Also consider plant species that are already threatened or endangered by over harvesting and not wildcraft or support any one who does harvest Echinacea sp., Goldenseal and American Ginseng. Check for other plants that are threatened in the area. Contact groups like American Herbalists Guild and United Plant Savers who are active networking communities and have access to to this knowledge. And foremost, offer thanks and gratitude to the plants, they appreciate that.