Cirsium fontinale

Fountain thistle

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

The fountain thistle is a California native perennial herb found in coastal areas at elevations of low to moderate heights. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces white to pink or lavender flowers in nodding heads 2 to 5 centimeters wide with distinctive green to purple involucres. Growing with erect stems 50 to 200 centimeters tall, it develops multiple stems with strongly wavy leaves covered in short, erect, jointed hairs. Its leaves are velvety and cobwebby, especially underneath, with proximal leaves having spiny-lobed edges and main spines 1 to 10 millimeters long. The fruit is 3.4 to 5 millimeters long, topped with a pappus 12 to 15 millimeters in length.

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.