Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Cirsium eatonii var. peckii

Cirsium eatonii var. eatonii
Cirsium eatonii var. peckii

Peck's thistle, Steens Mountain or ghost thistle, Steens Mountain thistle
Photo is of parent taxon
Stems

erect or ascending, stout, 10–150 cm.

ascending to erect, slender, 10–50 cm.
Leaf

faces glabrous or nearly so or abaxial ± villous with septate trichomes.

faces glabrous or nearly so.
Involucres

2–4 cm, loosely to densely villous with septate trichomes and thinly arachnoid with non-septate trichomes.

2–2.5 cm, thinly arachnoid-tomentose or glabrate, individual phyllaries evident.
Corollas

pink to purple, 21–25 mm, tubes 6.5–8 mm, throats 8–11.5 mm, lobes 5.5–7 mm.

purple, 17–26 mm, tubes 5–10 mm, throats 4.5–10.5 mm, lobes 5.5–7.5 mm.
Phyllaries

green;

outer with few or no lateral spines;

apical spines stout.

sometimes suffused with dark purple;

outer with few–many lateral spines;

apical spines slender to stout.
Heads

several–many, usually subsessile or short-pedunculate, crowded in erect, spiciform or racemiform arrays, less commonly openly branched.

usually short-pedunculate, in erect, short, racemiform or spiciform arrays, rarely openly branched.
Pappi

17–22 mm.

15–19 mm.
2n

= 34 (as C. peckii).

Cirsium eatonii var. peckii

Cirsium eatonii var. eatonii
Phenology Flowering summer (Jun–Aug). Flowering summer (Jul–Sep).
Habitat Grasslands, juniper woodlands, grass-sagebrush steppes, subalpine slopes, roadsides Rocky slopes, canyons, pinyon-juniper woodlands to alpine, montane coniferous forests, subalpine forests, alpine slopes
Elevation 1300–2900 m [4300–9500 ft] 2100–3500 m [6900–11500 ft]
Distribution
from FNA
NV; OR
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
NV; UT
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Variety peckii occurs from Steens Mountain and the Pueblo Mountains of Harney County, Oregon, south to the Black Rock Range and Jackson Mountains of Humboldt County, Nevada. On the lower portion of its distribution along Steens Mountain Loop Road at an elevation of about 1900 m, var. peckii and Cirsium inamoenum grow together and freely hybridize, forming a complex hybrid swarm. Intermediates variably combine the features of the parent taxa, with the habit more openly branched than typical for C. eatonii var. peckii, variably arachnoid tomentose leaves, ± glandular phyllaries, and lavender to pale pink flowers. Variety peckii may range as far south as the West Humboldt Mountains. The type of Cirsium humboldtense Rydberg (Carduus nevadensis Greene) closely resembles some of the hybrids between C. inamoenum and C. eatonii var. peckii.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Variety eatonii is distributed on various of the sky islands in the Basin and Range province of Nevada and Utah. Habitats vary from shaded forest understory sites to forest openings or open exposed sites.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 153. Treatment author: David J. Keil. FNA vol. 19, p. 151. Treatment author: David J. Keil.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Cardueae > Cirsium > Cirsium eatonii Asteraceae > tribe Cardueae > Cirsium > Cirsium eatonii
Sibling taxa
C. eatonii var. clokeyi, C. eatonii var. eatonii, C. eatonii var. eriocephalum, C. eatonii var. hesperium, C. eatonii var. murdockii, C. eatonii var. viperinum
C. eatonii var. clokeyi, C. eatonii var. eriocephalum, C. eatonii var. hesperium, C. eatonii var. murdockii, C. eatonii var. peckii, C. eatonii var. viperinum
Synonyms C. peckii C. eatonii var. harrisonii
Name authority (L. F. Henderson) D. J. Keil: Sida 21: 212. (2004) unknown
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Boraginaceae and Polemoniaceae.)

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers