Cirsium pumilum |
Cirsium parryi |
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pasture thistle |
Parry thistle, Parry's thistle |
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Habit | Biennials or monocarpic perennials, 25–100 cm; sometimes perennating by root sprouts. | Biennials, 50–200+ cm; taprooted. | ||||
Stems | erect, villous with septate trichomes and sometimes thinly arachnoid tomentose; branches 0–few, distal, 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 oblong-elliptic, 5–30+ × 2–10 cm, ± undulate, shallowly to deeply pinnatifid, lobes ovate to broadly triangular, usually separated by broad sinuses, spinose-dentate or lobed, main spines 1.5–7 mm, slender to stout, abaxial faces villous with septate trichomes, at least along veins, sometimes thinly arachnoid, adaxial faces villous with septate trichomes and thinly arachnoid tomentose or subglabrous; basal often present at flowering, bases tapered; principal cauline sessile, moderately reduced distally, bases often auriculate-clasping; distal reduced, similar to proximal. |
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 (above distal leaves), leafy-bracted. |
0–4 cm. |
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Involucres | broadly cylindric to ovoid, 3.5–5 cm, 2.5–3 cm diam. (appearing much wider and hemispheric to campanulate in pressed specimens), loosely arachnoid on phyllary margins 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 (white), 40–60 mm, tubes 20–35 mm, throats 11–15 mm, lobes 7–10 mm; style tips 3–7 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 8–10 series, imbricate, ovate or lanceolate (outer) to lance-linear (inner), abaxial faces with ± prominent glutinous ridge, outer and middle appressed, apices ascending to spreading, spines 1.5–6 mm; apices of middle and inner narrowed and scabrid-denticulate, innermost spineless, tapered and entire or with expanded, erose-denticulate, flexuous tips. |
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 at tips of main stem and branches, often closely subtended by 1–several bracts. |
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 | stramineous to brown, 3.5–5 mm, apical collars yellow or colored like body; pappi 35–45 mm. |
tan to dark brown, 4–6 mm, apical collars narrow, not differently colored; pappi 9–15 mm. |
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2n | = 30. |
= 34. |
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Cirsium pumilum |
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 |
CT; DE; IA; IL; IN; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; PA; RI; SC; VA; VT; WI; WV; ON; United States
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AZ; CO; NM
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). Flowers of Cirsium pumilum are reportedly sweetly scented. (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. 116. | FNA vol. 19, p. 149. | ||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Cardueae > Cirsium | Asteraceae > tribe Cardueae > Cirsium | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Carduus pumilus | Cnicus parryi, C. gilense, C. inornatum, C. pallidum, C. parryi subsp. mogollonicum | ||||
Name authority | (Nuttall) Sprengel: Syst. Veg. 3: 375. (1826) | (A. Gray) Petrak: Bot. Tidsskr. 31: 68. (1911) | ||||
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