Greater or Lesser Burdock

I love how plants are named and the classification systems biologists have come up with. It's like reading poetry. What amused me as I did some research on this plant was the listing or title of Greater or Lesser Burdock. Sounds like a titled family or a collection of towns. I think by the size this is Greater but I am not positive. So here is a thistle, a common sight around here that most consider a weed, but one I look forward to every year. Having a Scottish background, there were a number of thistle motifs about the house; my favourite being the stone stamp for shortbread that Mum or one of us kids would press into the top of the shortbread before baking. And did you know that burdock/thistle was the inspiration for Velcro?

Burdock