Cirsium pulcherrimum |
Cirsium parryi |
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Wyoming thistle |
Parry thistle, Parry's thistle |
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Habit | Perennials polycarpic, 15–60(–90) cm; deep-seated woody tap-roots and caudices. | Biennials, 50–200+ cm; taprooted. | ||||
Stems | 1–few, erect or ascending, arachnoid-tomentose or ± glabrate; branches 0–5+, usually in distal 1/2, ascending. |
1, erect, puberulent to pilose with jointed trichomes, sometimes also thinly arachnoid; branches 0–many, ascending, often nodding at tips. |
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Leaves | 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. |
blades oblong to lanceolate or oblanceolate, 10–30 × 2–5 cm, margins flat to undulate, spinulose and otherwise entire to coarsely dentate or shallowly to deeply pinnatifid, lobes well separated, spinulose to coarsely few-dentate, main spines slender to stout, 1–15 mm, one or both faces thinly pilose, sometimes thinly arachnoid, green and ± glabrescent at maturity; basal usually absent at flowering, sessile or winged-petiolate; principal cauline well distributed, proximal absent at flowering, moderately reduced distally, winged-petiolate or sessile (proximal), sessile and auriculate-clasping to slightly decurrent 0–2 cm; distal well developed, spreading, lobed or unlobed. |
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Peduncles | 0–15 cm. |
0–4 cm. |
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Involucres | ovoid to campanulate, 1.8–2.7 × 1–2 cm, thinly arachnoid-tomentose or glabrate. |
hemispheric to subspheric, 1.5–2.5 × 1.5–3 cm, glabrous to finely arachnoid and/or pilose, often long pilose-ciliate with arachnoid trichomes connecting adjacent phyllaries. |
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Corollas | 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. |
ochroleucous to ± yellow (rarely white or purple), 11–17 mm, tubes 5.5–11 mm, throats 2–4 mm, lobes 3–5 mm; style tips 2–4 mm. |
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Phyllaries | 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. |
in 5–8 series, imbricate to subequal, proximally greenish, distally darker, becoming brownish, linear to narrowly lanceolate, outer often nearly as long as inner, abaxial faces with poorly developed glutinous ridge; outer and mid bases appressed, apices loosely ascending to spreading, bodies entire to spiny-ciliate or terminal appendages expanded, ± scarious, pectinately fringed, spines straight, 2–6 mm; apices of inner flat or spine-tipped, sometimes expanded and fimbriate. |
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Heads | 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. |
1–many, ± erect, loosely to densely clustered at tip of main stem and branches in subcapitate to racemiform arrays, often also in distal leaf axils, closely subtended by clusters of unlobed to deeply dissected, often very spiny bracts. |
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Cypselae | tan to dark brown, 5–6 mm, apical collars yellow, narrow; pappi 14–16 mm. |
tan to dark brown, 4–6 mm, apical collars narrow, not differently colored; pappi 9–15 mm. |
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2n | = 34. |
= 34. |
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Cirsium pulcherrimum |
Cirsium parryi |
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Phenology | Flowering summer–fall (Jul–Oct). | |||||
Habitat | Stream banks, montane meadows, damp soil in montane coniferous forests | |||||
Elevation | 2100–3700 m (6900–12100 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
CO; ID; MT; NE; UT; WY
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AZ; CO; NM
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Discussion | 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.) |
Cirsium parryi ranges from the Rocky Mountains of central and southern Colorado south to the San Francisco Peaks, Pinaleno Mountains, and White Mountains of Arizona, and the Mogollon and Sacramento ranges of southern New Mexico. Within this broad range several minor variants have been recognized at the species level. The features that supposedly distinguish C. gilense, C. inornatum, and C. pallidum vary widely and inconsistently through the range of the species. In like manner the characters used by Schaack and Goodwin to distinguish subsp. mogollonicum fall well within the variation of the species as a whole and do not seem adequate to separate subsp. mogollonicum from the rest of C. parryi at any taxonomic rank. Cirsium parryi hybridizes with C. grahamii in Arizona and C. canescens in Colorado. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 19, p. 125. | FNA vol. 19, p. 149. | ||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Cardueae > Cirsium | Asteraceae > tribe Cardueae > Cirsium | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Carduus pulcherrimus | Cnicus parryi, C. gilense, C. inornatum, C. pallidum, C. parryi subsp. mogollonicum | ||||
Name authority | (Rydberg) K. Schumann: Just’s Bot. Jahresber. 29(1): 566. (1903) | (A. Gray) Petrak: Bot. Tidsskr. 31: 68. (1911) | ||||
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