Cirsium altissimum
Cirsium praeteriens
roadside thistle, tall thistle
lost or Palo Alto thistle, lost thistle, Palo Alto thistle
single, erect, villous with septate trichomes, sometimes ± glabrate, sometimes distally thinly tomentose;
branches few–many, ascending.
stout, erect, loosely arachnoid with fine trichomes and villous with jointed trichomes; branching unknown.
blades oblanceolate to elliptic or ovate, 10–40 × 1–13 cm, margins flat, finely spiny-toothed and otherwise undivided to coarsely toothed or shallowly pinnatifid, lobes broadly triangular, main spines 1–5 mm, abaxial faces white-tomentose, adaxial faces green, glabrate to villous with septate trichomes;
basal usually absent at flowering, winged-petiolate, bases tapered;
principal cauline well distributed, gradually reduced, bases narrowed, sometimes weakly clasping;
distal cauline well developed.
blades elliptic to oblanceolate, 15–30+ × 6–8+ cm, divided halfway or more to midveins, lobes linear-lanceolate, rigidly spreading, entire or trifid, acuminate, main spines stout, 5–15 mm, abaxial faces tomentose with fine, non-septate trichomes, villous along major veins with septate trichomes, adaxial glabrescent or sparsely tomentose, villous along veins;
basal not observed;
cauline well distributed, distally not much reduced, sessile, bases clasping, not decurrent.
0–5 cm (leafy-bracted).
0–1 cm.
ovoid to broadly cylindric or campanulate, (2–)2.5–3.5(–4) × (1.5–)2–3(–4) cm, thinly arachnoid.
hemispheric to broadly campanulate, 3–4 × 4–5+ cm, arachnoid.
tips 4–6 mm.
pink to purple (white), 20–35 mm, tubes 10–16 mm, throats 5–12 mm, lobes 5–9 mm.
white, 30–33 mm, tubes 16 mm, throats 9–12 mm, lobes 5.5–9 mm;
style tips 6 mm.
in 10–20 series, strongly imbricate, greenish with subapical darker central zone, ovate (outer) to lanceolate (inner), abaxial faces with a narrow glutinous ridge (milky when fresh, dark when dry), outer and middle entire, bodies appressed, spines slender, abruptly spreading, 3–4 mm;
apices of inner phyllaries spreading, narrow, flattened, entire, spines spreading, slender, 3–4 mm;
apices of inner phyllaries spreading, narrow, flattened, ± dilated, ± erose or finely serrulate.
in 6–8 series, narrowly lanceolate to linear, outer subequal, rigidly spreading, spines 5–10 mm, inner ± imbricate, bodies appressed, glutinous ridge absent, apices spreading, margins spinulose or scabrid, apices of mid and inner flattened, spineless, scabrid.
1–many, in corymbiform or paniculiform arrays, (± elevated above principal cauline leaves), not subtended by ring of spiny bracts.
1–5, terminal and in distal axils in spiciform arrays.
tan to dark brown, 4–5.5 mm, apical collars stramineous, 0.5–1 mm;
pappi 12–24 mm.
light brown, 6 mm, collars also light brown, ca. 0.75 mm;
pappi 25–33 mm.
= 18.
Cirsium altissimum
Cirsium praeteriens
Plants of Cirsium altissimum ranging from southern Minnesota to Texas often have more deeply divided leaves than do populations in other portions of the species’ range. Some botanists (e.g., R. J. Moore and C. Frankton 1969; D. S. Correll and M. C. Johnston 1970) have treated those plants as C. iowense. Others (e.g., R. E. Brooks 1986; H. A. Gleason and A. Cronquist 1991; G. B. Ownbey and T. Morley 1991) have treated them as C. altissimum. Still others considered them to be derivatives of hybridization between C. altissimum and C. discolor (J. T. Kartesz and C. A. Meacham 1999) and treated them as C. ×iowense. Indeed the existence of these plants blurs the distinction between C. altissimum and C. discolor, and herbarium specimens are often difficult to assign.
Natural hybrids between Cirsium altissimum and C. discolor are well documented (R. A. Davidson 1963; G. B. Ownbey and Hsi Y.-T. 1963; Ownbey 1964; S. Dabydeen 1997). Ownbey and Dabydeen both reported that apparent F1 hybrids between the two species have low seed set in comparison with the parental taxa. W. L. Bloom (1977) reported that the chromosomes of the two species differ by several rearareaments. Dabydeen reported a count of 2n = 19 with multiple meiotic irregularities for an apparent F1 hybrid. However, the presence of numerous individuals and populations seemingly intermediate between C. altissimum and C. discolor indicates that although F1 hybrids have low fertility, long-term processes may have stabilized hybrid derivatives of higher fertility. Ownbey and Hsi reported mitotic counts of 2n = 18 and 20 from a population that they treated as C. altissimum. In their discussion they noted that their plants represented “the segregate called C. iowense” and had been collected a short distance from that taxon’s type locality. R. J. Moore and C. Frankton (1969) reported a chromosome number of 2n = 18 for a plant from Texas that they considered to be C. iowense. Further investigation of morphologic variation, chromosome number, meiotic behavior, and fertility is needed of populations named as C. iowense to determine how those plants should be treated.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Of conservation concern.
Cirsium praeteriens is known only from Santa Clara County, where J. W. Congdon collected it in Palo Alto in 1897 and 1901. It is presumed extinct.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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