Meadow Thistle
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.