| Scientific Name | Cirsium horridulum | ||||||||||||
| Family Name | Aster ( Asteraceae ) | ||||||||||||
| Thistle
Upright prickly biennial or winter annual 1 - 5.5 ft. Stem thick, usually branched only in extreme tip portion. Flower: Head to 3 in across, ray flowers absent. Disk flowers cream to dark yellow to pink to dark purple. Held in a cup of weak spiny phyllaries, the cup subtended by a whorl of spiny leaf-like bracts. Leaves: Large winter basal rosette, later leave 8-24 inch, alternate, irregularly lobed and toothed, the lobes ending in long, rigid spines. | |||||||||||||
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Reference: Geyata Ajilvsgi Wildflowers of Texas p. 145 Niehaus, Ripper, Savage Peterson Field Guide to Southwestern and Texas Wildflowers p. 218 | |||||||||||||
March - May
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Winter basal rosette |