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 praeteriens

lost or Palo Alto thistle, lost thistle, Palo Alto thistle
Habit Biennials or perennials, probably more than 100 cm; rootstock unknown.
Stems

stout, erect, loosely arachnoid with fine trichomes and villous with jointed trichomes; branching unknown.
Leaves

blades elliptic to oblanceolate, 15–30+ × 6–8+ cm, divided halfway or more to midveins, lobes linear-lanceolate, rigidly spreading, entire or trifid, acuminate, main spines stout, 5–15 mm, abaxial faces tomentose with fine, non-septate trichomes, villous along major veins with septate trichomes, adaxial glabrescent or sparsely tomentose, villous along veins;

basal not observed;

cauline well distributed, distally not much reduced, sessile, bases clasping, not decurrent.
Peduncles

0–1 cm.
Involucres

hemispheric to broadly campanulate, 3–4 × 4–5+ cm, arachnoid.
Corollas

white, 30–33 mm, tubes 16 mm, throats 9–12 mm, lobes 5.5–9 mm;

style tips 6 mm.
Phyllaries

in 6–8 series, narrowly lanceolate to linear, outer subequal, rigidly spreading, spines 5–10 mm, inner ± imbricate, bodies appressed, glutinous ridge absent, apices spreading, margins spinulose or scabrid, apices of mid and inner flattened, spineless, scabrid.
Heads

1–5, terminal and in distal axils in spiciform arrays.
Cypselae

light brown, 6 mm, collars also light brown, ca. 0.75 mm;

pappi 25–33 mm.

Cirsium praeteriens
Phenology Flowering summer (Jun–Jul).
Habitat Habitat unknown
Elevation 0–100 m (0–300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Of conservation concern.

Cirsium praeteriens is known only from Santa Clara County, where J. W. Congdon collected it in Palo Alto in 1897 and 1901. It is presumed extinct.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 160.
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. flodmanii, 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. 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
Name authority J. F. Macbride: Contr. Gray Herb. 53: 19. (1918)
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 Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

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