Flora of North America species comparison

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Cirsium flodmanii

chardon de Flodman, Flodman's thistle, prairie thistle
Habit Perennials 30–140 cm; horizontal runner roots that produce root sprouts.
Stems

1–several, erect, gray- or white-tomentose;

branches 0–few, ascending.
Leaves

blades oblong-oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 4–40 × 1–10 cm, bases usually not decurrent, finely spiny-toothed and undivided to coarsely toothed or deeply pinnatifid, lobes broadly triangular to linear-lanceolate, often revolute-margined, main spines 1–7 mm, abaxial faces white-tomentose, adaxial faces green, thinly tomentose, ± glabrate;

basal usually absent or withered at flowering, winged petiolate;

principal cauline proximally winged-petiolate, distally sessile, well distributed, gradually reduced, bases usually not decurrent;

distal cauline well developed.
Peduncles

0–5 cm (elevated above distal leaves).
Involucres

ovoid to broadly campanulate, 2–3.5 × 2.5–3.5 cm, thinly arachnoid.
Corollas

purple (white), 23–36 mm, tubes 12–15 mm, throats 6–8.5 mm, lobes 5–9 mm;

style tips 4–7 mm.
Phyllaries

in 7–12 series, strongly imbricate, greenish with subapical darker central zone, ovate or lanceolate (outer) to linear (inner), abaxial faces with prominent glutinous ridge;

outer and middle entire, bodies appressed, entire, acute, spines abruptly spreading, slender, 2–4 mm;

apices of inner spreading, flexuous, narrow, flattened, finely serrulate, ± scabrous.
Heads

erect, borne singly and terminal on main stem and branches, or few in corymbiform arrays from distal axils (not subtended by ring of spiny-margined bracts).
Cypselae

light brown, 3–5 mm, apical collars stramineous, 0.5–1 mm;

pappi (white or tawny) 20–30 mm.
2n

= 22, 24.

Cirsium flodmanii
Phenology Flowering summer (Jun–Sep).
Habitat Tallgrass, mixedgrass, shortgrass prairies, meadows, pastures, often in damp soil
Elevation 100–2400 m (300–7900 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CO; IA; IL; KS; MI; MN; MT; ND; NE; SD; WI; WY; AB; MB; ON; QC; SK
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Cirsium flodmanii ranges from Saskatchewan and Alberta south through the northern Great Plains and intermountain valleys of Montana and Wyoming to northeastern Colorado and east through the prairies to Minnesota and Iowa, and in widely scattered locations eastward to northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin, southern Ontario, and southern Quebec. It is known to hybridize with C. muticum and C. undulatum. Hybrids between C. flodmanii and C. undulatum are highly sterile with numerous meiotic irregularities (S. Dabydeen 1987).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 120.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Cardueae > Cirsium
Sibling taxa
C. altissimum, C. andersonii, C. andrewsii, C. arizonicum, C. arvense, C. barnebyi, C. brevifolium, C. brevistylum, C. canescens, C. carolinianum, C. ciliolatum, C. clavatum, C. crassicaule, C. cymosum, C. discolor, C. douglasii, C. drummondii, C. eatonii, C. edule, C. engelmannii, C. foliosum, C. fontinale, C. grahamii, C. helenioides, C. hookerianum, C. horridulum, C. hydrophilum, C. inamoenum, C. joannae, C. kamtschaticum, C. lecontei, C. longistylum, C. mohavense, C. muticum, C. neomexicanum, C. nuttallii, C. occidentale, C. ochrocentrum, C. ownbeyi, C. palustre, C. parryi, C. perplexans, C. pitcheri, C. praeteriens, C. pulcherrimum, C. pumilum, C. quercetorum, C. remotifolium, C. repandum, C. rhothophilum, C. rydbergii, C. scariosum, C. texanum, C. tracyi, C. turneri, C. undulatum, C. vinaceum, C. virginianum, C. vulgare, C. wheeleri, C. wrightii
Synonyms Carduus flodmanii, C. oblanceolatum
Name authority (Rydberg) Arthur: Torreya 12: 34. (1912)
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).



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