Cirsium cymosum var. cymosum
Peregrine thistle
Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native
Peregrine thistle is a California native perennial herb found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, Cascade Range, northern and central Sierra Nevada, San Francisco Bay Area, and northern Santa Cruz Mountains in scrubland, woodland, and open forest at elevations of 100 to 2,100 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces white to pale purple flowers in large heads 20 to 35 millimeters wide with distinctively long outer phyllaries. Growing with stems emerging from a creeping rootstock, it develops robust plants with sticky-resinous characteristics. Its leaves are deeply lobed and prickly, typical of thistles, with a complex texture that provides structural defense. The plant shows notable variation in chromosome count, with populations displaying either 30 or 34 chromosomes.
Habitat: Scrubland, woodland, open forest, meadows, occasionally on serpentine
Bloom period: Apr-Jul
Elevation: 100-2100 m
Bioregions: KR, NCoR, CaR, n&s SN, SnFrB, n SCoRI
California counties: Stanislaus, Alameda, Lassen, Contra Costa, Lake, Modoc, Shasta, Colusa, Kern, Siskiyou, Tehama, Trinity, Santa Clara, Napa, Merced, San Benito, Sierra, Plumas, Glenn, Yolo, Humboldt, Mono, Monterey
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.