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Meadow Thistle
Cirsium scariosum Nutt.
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)
▲ shorter plant initiating flowering
▲▼mature, flowering plants
▲▼flowers/inflorescences
▲ stem (showing many long hairs) and leaves
Cirsium scariosum
Nutt., Meadow Thistle:
(Bayer Code:
CIRSC; US Code:
CISC2)
·
Native biennial or short-lived perennial thistle that can grow from 0.5
to 6 feet tall, sometimes flowering from a mound of short, branched stems, other
times from elongated single stem
·
Leaves and stems can be hairless to densely hairy; leaves are oval to
linear in outline, with few to many lobes that can be shallow or deep, with
spiny margins, particularly at lobe tips
·
Head inflorescences surrounded by leafy bracts, similar to yellow
thistle; heads can be single at top of stems (more common on taller plants) or
clustered in a mound (on short, almost stemless plants)
·
Ray flowers pinkish-purple to white; bracts below inflorescence hidden
by leafy bracts below heads
·
Native to western U.S. (not in Midwest)
·
Similar yellow thistle
(Cirsium horridulum)
is native to east and southeast U.S., so their habitat separation allows for
easy distinction (so far)
This is one of the native thistles that is sometimes
mistaken for an invasive thistle species.
Native thistles provide food and nectar for native
insects (including bees and butterflies), birds and other animals, and generally
should not be killed indiscriminately.
Maintaining proper grazing levels can often reduce
their unwanted increase in pastures and rangeland.