Cirsium andersonii |
Cirsium pulcherrimum |
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Anderson's thistle, rose thistle |
Wyoming thistle |
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Habit | Perennials (but often appearing biennial), (15–)40–70(–100) cm; rootstocks producing erect, taprooted caudices and rosettes. | Perennials polycarpic, 15–60(–90) cm; deep-seated woody tap-roots and caudices. | ||||
Stems | usually 1, erect, subglabrous to puberulent and/or tomentose; branches 0–several, stiffly ascending. |
1–few, erect or ascending, arachnoid-tomentose or ± glabrate; branches 0–5+, usually in distal 1/2, ascending. |
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Leaves | blades ± elliptic, 8–35 × 4–8 cm, divided about halfway to midveins, lobes spreading, triangular, coarsely dentate or with a few broad lobes, obtuse to acute, main spines 1–5 mm, abaxial faces green or gray, thinly tomentose, adaxial green and glabrous to sparingly pilose; basal often present at flowering, spiny winged-petiolate; main cauline reduced distally, bases clasping; distal much reduced, linear-oblong, usually less deeply lobed and often spinier than proximal. |
blades linear to oblong, oblanceolate, or elliptic, 5–25 × 0.6–7 cm, unlobed and merely spinulose or spiny-dentate to regularly pinnatifid, lobes 5–8(–many) pairs, well separated, usually with broad, U-shaped sinuses to crowded, linear to triangular-ovate, ascending-spreading to retrorse, merely spinulose to coarsely dentate or few lobed, main spines 2–7 mm, ± slender, abaxial faces gray to white, usually densely arachnoid-tomentose, sometimes ± glabrate, sometimes villous with septate trichomes along veins, adaxial green, glabrous or less commonly thinly to densely gray-tomentose; basal often present at flowering, spiny winged-petiolate; principal cauline well distributed, gradually reduced distally, proximal usually winged-petiolate, mid and distal sessile, bases decurrent as spiny wings 1.5–3.5 cm; distalmost reduced, ± bractlike. |
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Peduncles | 0–20 cm. |
0–15 cm. |
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Involucres | broadly cylindric to narrowly campanulate, 3–5 × 2–4 cm, loosely arachnoid or ± glabrous, finely short-ciliate. |
ovoid to campanulate, 1.8–2.7 × 1–2 cm, thinly arachnoid-tomentose or glabrate. |
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Corollas | red to reddish purple, 30–45 mm, tubes 10–20 mm, throats 10–16 mm, lobes 9–11 mm; style tips 3.5–5 mm. |
pink to purple (creamy white), 18–25 mm, tubes 7–9 mm, throats 5.5–7.5 mm, lobes 4–8 mm; style tips 3–5.5 mm. |
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Phyllaries | in 6–8 series, imbricate, outer green, inner purple to red, linear-lanceolate (outer) to linear (inner), abaxial faces without glutinous ridge; outer and mid bodies short, appressed, entire or spinulose-ciliate, apices long-spreading to ascending, entire or spinulose-ciliate or rarely with expanded, fringed appendages, spines straight, weak, 1–3 mm; apices of inner red to purple, straight or rarely twisted, long, flat, entire. |
in 6–7 series, ± imbricate, green or with dark subapical patch or appendage, linear to linear-lanceolate, margins entire, abaxial faces with narrow glutinous ridge; outer and middle bases appressed, apical appendages spreading to stiffly ascending, linear-lanceolate to acicular, entire, spines spreading or ascending, stout, 2–7 mm, often flattened; apices of inner stiffly erect or sometimes flexuous, narrow, flat. |
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Heads | 1–6, borne singly or in corymbiform, racemiform, or spiciform arrays. |
1–few, borne singly or in 2–3-headed clusters in ± congested flat-topped or racemiform arrays at tips of main stem and branches, sometimes also in distal axils. |
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Cypselae | brown, 6–7 mm, apical collars narrow; pappi 25–40 mm. |
tan to dark brown, 5–6 mm, apical collars yellow, narrow; pappi 14–16 mm. |
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2n | = 32, 64. |
= 34. |
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Cirsium andersonii |
Cirsium pulcherrimum |
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Phenology | Flowering summer (Jul–Sep). | |||||
Habitat | Moist to dry soils, openings in montane woodlands, montaine coniferous forests, aspen groves | |||||
Elevation | 1100–2900 m (3600–9500 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
CA; ID; NV
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CO; ID; MT; NE; UT; WY
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Discussion | Cirsium andersonii grows in the Cascade Range of northern California south through the Sierra Nevada of eastern California and western Nevada. It has been reported from the mountains of southwestern Idaho, but I have not seen specimens from there. Heads of Cirsium andersonii are actively visited by hummingbirds as well as a variety of insects (P. L. Barlow-Irick 2002). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). Cirsium pulcherrimum is closely related to C. clavatum. In southeastern Wyoming and northern Colorado some plants combine foliage and involucral characters of C. pulcherrimum var. pulcherrimum and C. clavatum var. americanum. The inheritance of these characters needs to be examined at the population level to determine whether the intermediates are hybrids or the products of past introgression or incomplete differentiation. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 19, p. 145. | FNA vol. 19, p. 125. | ||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Cardueae > Cirsium | Asteraceae > tribe Cardueae > Cirsium | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Cnicus andersonii | Carduus pulcherrimus | ||||
Name authority | (A. Gray) Petrak: Bot. Tiddsskr. 31: 68. (1911) | (Rydberg) K. Schumann: Just’s Bot. Jahresber. 29(1): 566. (1903) | ||||
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