Cirsium flodmanii |
Cirsium fontinale |
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chardon de Flodman, Flodman's thistle, prairie thistle |
fountain thistle |
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Habit | Perennials 30–140 cm; horizontal runner roots that produce root sprouts. | |||||||||
Stems | 1–several, erect, gray- or white-tomentose; branches 0–few, ascending. |
1–several, erect, loosely arachnoid-tomentose, glandular-pilose; branches several to many, spreading. |
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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. |
blades oblanceolate to oblong or elliptic, 20–70 × 5–16 cm, strongly undulate, shallowly to deeply pinnatifid, lobes coarsely toothed or with triangular secondary lobes, main spines 3–15 mm, abaxial faces more densely tomentose, adaxial densely glandular with short, multicellular trichomes and ± tomentose with fine, arachnoid, non-septate trichomes; basal often present at flowering, petiolate; principal cauline well distributed, becoming sessile, gradually reduced distally, bases auriculate-decurrent with broad, spiny-margined wings 3 cm or less; distal cauline leaves progressively reduced, ± bractlike. |
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Peduncles | 0–5 cm (elevated above distal leaves). |
0–7 cm. |
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Involucres | ovoid to broadly campanulate, 2–3.5 × 2.5–3.5 cm, thinly arachnoid. |
(green to purple), hemispheric or campanulate, 1.5–3 × 2–5 cm, glabrous or puberulent. |
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Corollas | purple (white), 23–36 mm, tubes 12–15 mm, throats 6–8.5 mm, lobes 5–9 mm; style tips 4–7 mm. |
white to pinkish or lavender, 14.5–22 mm, tubes 5–8 mm, throats 4.5–9 mm, lobes 3–8 mm; style tips 2.5–4.5 mm. |
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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. |
in 6–10 series, imbricate, ovate to lanceolate, abaxial faces without glutinous ridge; outer and mid bases appressed, short, bodies entire to erose or ciliolate (rarely outer spine-margined), apices spreading to recurved or reflexed, long, dilated, adaxially puberulent, spines 1–6 mm; apices of inner erect or reflexed, flattened or tipped with short spines. |
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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). |
few–many, ± nodding, in paniculiform or corymbiform arrays, bracts leafy or much reduced. |
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Cypselae | light brown, 3–5 mm, apical collars stramineous, 0.5–1 mm; pappi (white or tawny) 20–30 mm. |
brownish, 3.4–5 mm, apical collars tan; pappi 12–15 mm. |
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Monocarpic | perennials, 50–220 cm; woody tap-rooted caudices with numerous coarse, fibrous lateral roots, sometimes forming new rosettes from root sprouts. |
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2n | = 22, 24. |
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Cirsium flodmanii |
Cirsium fontinale |
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Phenology | Flowering summer (Jun–Sep). | |||||||||
Habitat | Tallgrass, mixedgrass, shortgrass prairies, meadows, pastures, often in damp soil | |||||||||
Elevation | 100–2400 m (300–7900 ft) | |||||||||
Distribution |
CO; IA; IL; KS; MI; MN; MT; ND; NE; SD; WI; WY; AB; MB; ON; QC; SK
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c Calif
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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.) |
Varieties 3 (3 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 19, p. 120. | FNA vol. 19, p. 161. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Cardueae > Cirsium | Asteraceae > tribe Cardueae > Cirsium | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | Carduus flodmanii, C. oblanceolatum | Cnicus fontinalis | ||||||||
Name authority | (Rydberg) Arthur: Torreya 12: 34. (1912) | (Greene) Jepson: Fl. W. Calif., 505. (1901) | ||||||||
Web links |