Cirsium mohavense

Cirsium mohavense is a species of thistle known by the common names virgin thistle and Mojave thistle. It is native to the southwestern United States, where it grows in moist areas in otherwise dry habitat, such as desert springs. It is most common in the Mojave Desert, found also in the southern Great Basin and other nearby regions of California, Nevada, western Arizona, and southwestern Utah.[2][3]

Cirsium mohavense
photo of herbarium specimen at University of California @ Davis, collected in Owens Valley, California
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Cirsium
Species:
C. mohavense
Binomial name
Cirsium mohavense
Synonyms[1]
  • Carduus mohavensis Greene
  • Carduus rusbyi Greene
  • Cirsium rusbyi (Greene) Petr.
  • Cirsium virginense S.L.Welsh

Cirsium mohavense is a biennial or perennial growing up to 2.5 meters (100 inches or 8 feet 4 inches) tall. The densely woolly stem branches and spreads near the top. The leaves are toothed to deeply lobed, woolly, spiny, and up to 60 centimeters (24 inches) long near the base of the plant. The inflorescence is a spreading array of clusters of flower heads, each generally less than 3 centimeters long and wide. The flower head is coated in spiny phyllaries and filled with white, lavender, or pink flowers. The fruit is an achene a few millimeters long with a pappus on top about 1.5 centimeters long.[4]

References
  1. The Plant List, Cirsium mohavense (Greene) Petr.
  2. Biota of North America Program 2014 county distribution map
  3. Calflora taxon report, University of California, Cirsium mohavense (E. Greene) Petrak, Mohave Thistle, Mojave thistle
  4. Flora of North America, Cirsium mohavense


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