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yellow star-thistle

Habit Annual or biennial, 2-8 dm. tall, thinly white-woolly throughout, the stem winged.
Leaves

Basal leaves lyrate and pinnatifid, up to 20 cm. long and 5 cm. wide;

cauline leaves smaller, becoming linear and entire upward.

Flowers

Heads several, broader toward the base;

involucre 10-15 mm. high, its middle and outer bracts spine-tipped, the larger spines 11-22 mm. long;

flowers yellow;

pappus of the outer flowers wanting, that of the others 3-5 mm. long;

receptacle densely bristly.

Centaurea solstitialis

Flowering time July-September
Habitat Roadsides, fields, ditches, meadows, grassy slopes, wastelots, and other disturbed, open areas at low to middle elevations.
Distribution
Occurring chiefly east of the Cascades crest and in the Columbia River Gorge in Washington; Washington to California, east across most of North America to the Atlantic Coast.
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Origin Introduced from Europe
Conservation status Not of concern
Sibling taxa
C. benedicta, C. calcitrapa, C. cyanus, C. diffusa, C. ×gerstlaueri, C. iberica, C. jacea, C. macrocephala, C. melitensis, C. montana, C. nigra, C. nigrescens, C. stoebe, C. trichocephala, C. ×varnensis
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