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Cirsium

Cirsium
Family: Asteraceae
Cirsium image
Robert Sivinski
  • FNA
  • Gleason & Cronquist
  • Resources
David J. Keil in Flora of North America (vol. 19, 20 and 21)
Annuals, biennials, or perennials, 5-400 cm, spiny. Stems (1-several) erect, branched or simple, sometimes narrowly spiny-winged. Leaves basal and cauline; finely bristly-dentate to coarsely dentate or 1-3 times pinnately lobed, teeth and lobes bristly-tipped, faces green and glabrous or densely gray-canescent, usually eglandular. Heads discoid, borne singly, terminal and in distal axils, or in racemiform, spiciform, subcapitate, paniculiform, or corymbiform arrays. ( Peduncles with ± reduced leaflike bracts.) Involucres cylindric to ovoid or spheric, (1-6 ×)1-8 cm. Phyllaries many in 5-20 series, subequal or weakly to strongly, outer and middle with bases appressed and apices spreading to erect, usually spine-tipped, innermost usually with erect, flat, often twisted, entire or dentate, usually spineless apices (distal portion of phyllary midveins in many species with elongate, glutinous resin gland, usually milky in fresh material but dark brown to black when dry). Receptacles flat to convex, epaleate, covered with tawny to white bristles or setiform scales. Florets 25-200+; corollas white to pink, red, yellow or purple, ± bilateral, tubes long, slender, distally bent, throats short, abruptly expanded. cylindric, lobes linear; (filaments distinct) anther bases sharply short-tailed, apical appendages linear-oblong; style tips elongate (as measured in descriptions including the slightly swollen nodes, long cylindric fused portions of style branches and very short distinct portions). Cypselae ovoid, ± compressed, with apical rims, smooth, not ribbed, glabrous, basal attachment scars slightly angled; pappi persistent or falling in rings, in 3-5 series of many flattened, plumose bristles or plumose, setiform scales (longer bristles shorter than corollas except in C. foliosum and C. arvense). x = 17.

Only three genera in Cynareae are represented by native species in the New World, and of these Cirsium is by far the most widely distributed and diverse. Native species of Cirsium range from sea level to alpine and from boreal regions of Canada to the tropics of Central America. Members of the genus occur in a myriad of habitats including swamps, meadows, forests, prairies, sand dunes, and deserts.
Vascular plants of NE US and adjacent Canada
Heads discoid, the fls all tubular and perfect, or the plants sometimes dioecious by abortion; invol bracts imbricate, usually some or all of them spine- tipped, and in many spp. with a thickened, glutinous, dorsal ridge; receptacle flat to subconic, densely bristly; cors purple to yellowish or white, with slender tube and long, narrow lobes; filaments usually papillose-hairy; anthers with a firm, narrow, apical appendage, evidently tailed at the base; style with a thickened, hairy ring and an abrupt change of texture below the ±connate, papillate branches; achenes basifixed or nearly so, glabrous, firm, thick-compressed, often curved, nerveless, commonly with a cartilaginous, pale yellow collar; pappus of numerous plumose bristles, deciduous in a ring; spiny herbs with alternate, toothed to more often pinnatifid lvs and medium- sized to large heads. 200, N. Hemisphere. (Spp. all sometimes included in Carduus)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Species within inventory project: Arizona Flora
Cirsium arcuum
Media resource of Cirsium arcuum
Map not
Available
Cirsium arizonicum
Media resource of Cirsium arizonicum
Map not
Available
Cirsium arvense
Media resource of Cirsium arvense
Map not
Available
Cirsium chellyense
Media resource of Cirsium chellyense
Map not
Available
Cirsium chuskaense
Media resource of Cirsium chuskaense
Map not
Available
Cirsium clokeyi
Media resource of Cirsium clokeyi
Map not
Available
Cirsium coahuilense
Media resource of Cirsium coahuilense
Map not
Available
Cirsium drummondii
Media resource of Cirsium drummondii
Map not
Available
Cirsium flodmanii
Media resource of Cirsium flodmanii
Map not
Available
Cirsium foliosum
Media resource of Cirsium foliosum
Map not
Available
Cirsium grahamii
Media resource of Cirsium grahamii
Map not
Available
Cirsium mohavense
Media resource of Cirsium mohavense
Map not
Available
Cirsium navajoense
Media
not available
Map not
Available
Cirsium neomexicanum
Media resource of Cirsium neomexicanum
Map not
Available
Cirsium ochrocentrum
Media resource of Cirsium ochrocentrum
Map not
Available
Cirsium parryi
Media resource of Cirsium parryi
Map not
Available
Cirsium rusbyi
Media
not available
Map not
Available
Cirsium rydbergii
Media resource of Cirsium rydbergii
Map not
Available
Cirsium scariosum
Media resource of Cirsium scariosum
Map not
Available
Cirsium tenuisectum
Media resource of Cirsium tenuisectum
Map not
Available
Cirsium tioganum
Media resource of Cirsium tioganum
Map not
Available
Cirsium undulatum
Media resource of Cirsium undulatum
Map not
Available
Cirsium virginense
Media resource of Cirsium virginense
Map not
Available
Cirsium vulgare
Media resource of Cirsium vulgare
Map not
Available
Cirsium wheeleri
Media resource of Cirsium wheeleri
Map not
Available
Cirsium wrightii
Media resource of Cirsium wrightii
Map not
Available
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This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services [MG-70-19-0057-19].

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