Cirsium altissimum
Cirsium wrightii
roadside thistle, tall thistle
Wright's Marsh thistle, Wright's thistle
single, erect, villous with septate trichomes, sometimes ± glabrate, sometimes distally thinly tomentose;
branches few–many, ascending.
usually 1, erect, glabrous to ± tomentose;
branches many, usually restricted to distal part of stem, ascending.
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 oblong to elliptic, 10–60 × 5–20 cm, unlobed and merely spinulose to irregularly dentate or shallowly to deeply pinnatifid, lobes ± broadly triangular, separated by wide sinuses, obtuse to acute, sometimes coarsely toothed or lobed, main spines slender, 1–3 mm, faces thinly arachnoid, soon glabrescent;
basal often present at flowering, petioles slender, ± winged;
cauline progressively reduced, proximal petiolate, mid and distal sessile, long-decurrent;
distalmost linear to narrowly elliptic, bractlike, spinulose to irregularly dentate or shallowly lobed.
0–5 cm (leafy-bracted).
slender, 1–15 cm.
ovoid to broadly cylindric or campanulate, (2–)2.5–3.5(–4) × (1.5–)2–3(–4) cm, thinly arachnoid.
ovoid to hemispheric, 1–2 × 1–2 cm, thinly arachnoid, glabrate.
tips 4–6 mm.
pink to purple (white), 20–35 mm, tubes 10–16 mm, throats 5–12 mm, lobes 5–9 mm.
white to pink-purple, 19–21 mm, tubes 9–10 mm, throats 4–4.5 mm, lobes 5–7 mm;
style tips 2–3.5 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 8–9 series, strongly imbricate, green, lanceolate (outer) to linear (inner), abaxial faces with prominent glutinous ridge;
outer and middle appressed, bodies entire, apices acute, spines spreading, slender, ca. 1 mm;
apices of inner often flexuous, acuminate, flat, scabrid-ciliolate.
1–many, in corymbiform or paniculiform arrays, (± elevated above principal cauline leaves), not subtended by ring of spiny bracts.
many, in openly paniculiform arrays, borne singly at tips of peduncles.
tan to dark brown, 4–5.5 mm, apical collars stramineous, 0.5–1 mm;
pappi 12–24 mm.
brown, ca. 4.5 mm, apical collars stramineous, 0.2 mm;
pappi 15–16 mm.
= 18.
Cirsium altissimum
Cirsium wrightii
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.
Wright’s thistle occurs from the mountains of south-central New Mexico eastward to the cienegas of the adjacent southwestern Great Plains. Cirsium wrightii is listed by the state of New Mexico as a species of concern. The one known site in Cochise County, Arizona, is apparently historic.
Hybrids are known between Cirsium wrightii and C. vinaceum in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico. I have observed hummingbird visits to the heads of both species, though C. wrightii shows none of the apparent adaptations to hummingbirds (P. L. Barlow-Irick 2002) that are seen in such taxa as C. occidentale var. candidissimum, C. andersonii, and C. arizonicum.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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