Cirsium scariosum |
Cirsium undulatum |
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chardon écailleux, dinnerplate thistle, elk thistle, meadow thistle |
gray thistle, wavy-leaf thistle, wavyleaf or gray or pasture thistle |
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Habit | Biennials or monocarpic perennials, acaulescent, short caulescent and forming low rounded mounds, or caulescent and erect, 0–200 cm; taprooted. | Perennials, 20–230 cm; deeply seated runner roots that produce adventitious buds. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | absent, or with crowded branches from near base, or simple and erect, often fleshy and thickened, glabrous to thinly gray- tomentose, often villous with septate trichomes. |
1–several, erect or ascending, densely gray-tomentose; branches 0–few, usually above middle, ascending. |
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Leaves | blades linear to elliptic, 5–20 × 3–7 cm, plane to strongly undulate, unlobed or shallowly to deeply pinnatifid, lobes linear-lanceolate to broadly triangular, closely spaced, spreading, spinose-dentate or lobed, main spines slender to stout, 2–15+ mm, abaxial faces glabrous or thinly to densely tomentose, ± villous with septate trichomes along the veins, glabrate or trichomes persistent, adaxial thinly arachnoid tomentose and soon glabrescent; basal often present at flowering, sessile or winged-petiolate; cauline many in caulescent forms, reduced distally or not, winged-petiolate or distal sessile; distal often well developed, similar to proximal, sometimes much narrower and bractlike. |
blades elliptic to oblong or ovate, 10–40 × 1–10 cm, margins strongly undulate, coarsely dentate or shallowly to deeply lobed, lobes ascending to spreading, ± triangular, well separated to closely spaced, spinulose and coarsely dentate or usually cleft into 2–3 lanceolate to triangular, often entire-margined, spine-tipped divisions, main spines (yellowish), 2–12+ mm, abaxial densely gray-tomentose, adaxial faces thinly tomentose; basal sometimes present at flowering, winged-petiolate; principal cauline becoming sessile and progressively reduced distally, widest at base, bases ± auriculate-clasping to short-decurrent; distal reduced, spinier. |
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Peduncles | 0–10 cm, leafy-bracted. |
0–25+ cm. |
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Involucres | ovoid to hemispheric, 2–4 × 1.5–6 cm, loosely arachnoid on phyllary margins or glabrate. |
ovoid to hemispheric or broadly campanulate, 2.5–4.5 × 1.5–4.5 cm, loosely arachnoid on phyllary margins or glabrate. |
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Corollas | white or pale lavender to purple, 20–40 mm, tubes 7–24 mm, throats 4–12 mm (noticeably larger than tubes), lobes 4–10 mm; style tips 3.5–8 mm. |
lavender to pink, purple, or white, 24–50 mm, tubes 12–28 mm, throats 6–14 mm, lobes 6.5–13 mm; style tips 5–7.5 mm. |
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Phyllaries | in 5–10 series, imbricate, ovate or lanceolate (outer) to linear or linear-lanceolate (inner), margins (outer) entire or scarious-fringed, abaxial faces without glutinous ridge; outer and mid appressed, spines erect to spreading 0.5–13 mm; apices of mid and inner narrowed and scabro-denticulate or with expanded, erose-dentate tips, spineless or tipped with flattened spines. |
in 8–12 series, imbricate, ovate to lanceolate (outer) to linear-lanceolate (inner), abaxial faces with prominent glutinous ridge; outer and middle appressed, spines spreading, 1.5–5 mm; apices of inner narrow, often flexuous, flat, ± entire, spineless or weakly spiny. |
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Heads | 1–many, erect, borne singly or often densely crowded in spiciform, racemiform, or subcapitate arrays, especially in acaulescent or short-caulescent plants, often closely subtended by distalmost leaves. |
1–10+, terminal on branches, in leafy, ± corymbiform arrays. |
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Cypselae | light to dark brown, 4–6.5 mm, apical collars usually colored like body; pappi 17–35 mm, white to tan. |
light to dark brown, 6–7 mm, bodies and apical collars concolorous, narrow; pappi 20–38 mm (usually scabridulous). |
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2n | = 34, 36. |
= 26. |
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Cirsium scariosum |
Cirsium undulatum |
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Phenology | Flowering spring–autumn (May–Oct). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Mixedgrass prairie, shortgrass prairie, Palouse prairie, sagebrush deserts, pinyon-juniper woodlands, openings in montane coniferous forests, often in disturbed areas | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 100–2800 m (300–9200 ft) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; QC; disjunct to e Que (Mingan Archipelago)
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AZ; CA; CO; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; MI; MN; MO; MT; ND; NE; NM; OK; OR; PA; SD; TX; UT; WA; WI; WY; AB; BC; MB; SK; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Sonora)
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Discussion | Varieties 8 (8 in the flora). Cirsium scariosum is a widely distributed complex of intergrading races distributed from southwestern Canada to northwestern Mexico. These plants range from acaulescent rosettes with a tight cluster of sessile heads to tall, erect, unbranched plants, or moundlike, more or less openly branched herbs. Acaulescent and caulescent plants sometimes occur in the same population. Members of this complex have been variously treated in the past. F. Petrak (1917) recognized ten species plus several subspecies for the taxa I am treating here as C. scariosum (in the broad sense). In floras, the names C. drummondii and C. foliosum have been widely misapplied to these plants (R. J. Moore and C. Frankton 1964). The latter two species, while clearly related to C. scariosum, have a range restricted mostly to Canada. Moore and Frankton (1967) attempted to bring order to the complex and recognized four species for plants that I include here in C. scariosum: C. acaulescens, C. congdonii, C. coloradense, and C. scariosum in the restricted sense. Moore and Frankton substituted the prior name C. tioganum for C. acaulescens. Unfortunately they did not extend their study widely enough and did not include some members of the complex in their investigations. S. L. Welsh (1982) proposed C. scariosum var. thorneae from Utah and lumped the various species recognized by Moore and Frankton within a highly polymorphic var. scariosum. After consulting with A. Cronquist and studying his manuscript treatment of Cirsium for the Intermountain Flora, D. J. Keil and C. E. Turner (1993) also accepted a broadly construed C. scariosum. Cronquist (1994) treated C. scariosum as an extremely variable species that included the four species recognized by Moore and Frankton plus the variety proposed by Welsh. Cronquist chose to not recognize infraspecific taxa. In the present treatment I have examined these plants from a biogeographic perspective with the goal of discerning regional patterns of variation. The large number of specimens available has allowed me to examine distributional patterns in relation to the topography and biogeographic history of the regions where this species occurs. My field studies also have provided me with observations that help to explain some of the anomalous specimens represented in herbaria. Although the variation within and between populations is sometimes amazing, more-or-less differentiated geographic races can be discerned. Because of the extraordinary and overlapping patterns of variation across the range of Cirsium scariosum, the following key to varieties should be regarded as at best an approximation. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Cirsium undulatum is widely distributed in the wstern half of North America from the dry plains and plateaus of the Pacific Northwest eastward across the Great Plains to Manitoba and the Dakotas and south to Texas, New Mexico, and northwestern Mexico. It occurs in scattered localities in the Rocky Mountains and northeastern Great Basin region. At least some of the few widely scattered records from the eastern United States are probably introductions. Cirsium undulatum is both widespread and variable. Plants of the Great Plains region tend to be low-growing with a few large heads and elongate corollas. Plants of the Pacific Northwest are usually taller and produce smaller, more numerous heads with shorter corollas. A detailed study of this species might reveal races worthy of recognition as infraspecific taxa. Wavyleaf thistle is listed by California as a noxious weed. However, most reports of Cirsium undulatum in California are based upon misidentifications of C. canescens. Cirsium undulatum is known to hybridize with C. flodmanii, C. hookerianum, and C. scariosum var. coloradense. J. T. Howell (1960b) reported that C. undulatum was suspected to hybridize with C. brevifolium in the Pacific Northwest. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 19, p. 1. | FNA vol. 19, p. 120. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Cardueae > Cirsium | Asteraceae > tribe Cardueae > Cirsium | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | C. hookerianum var. scariosum | Carduus undulatus, C. megacephalum, C. undulatum var. megacephalum | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Nuttall: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 420. (1841) | (Nuttall) Sprengel: Syst. Veg. 3: 374. (1826) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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