Cirsium inamoenum var. inamoenum

Greene's thistle

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Greene's thistle is a California native perennial herb found in the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin bioregions in dry slopes, grasslands, scrublands, woodlands, and forests at elevations of 1,700 to 3,000 meters. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces white or pale lavender flowers in open, flat-topped clusters with heads 2 to 3 centimeters wide. Growing 20 to 100 centimeters tall with 1 to several erect stems that are distally branched, it has a distinctive growth pattern with progressively smaller and spinier leaves up the stem. Its leaves are thinly gray-tomentose, with basal leaves often absent during flowering, ranging from linear to oblanceolate and featuring spiny margins that become increasingly pronounced toward the stem tips. The flower heads are characterized by strongly graduated, loosely appressed phyllary tips with 3 to 6 millimeter spines that ascend or spread abruptly.

Habitat: dry slopes, grassland, scrubland, woodland, forest

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: 1700-3000 m

Bioregions: SNH, GB

California counties: Alpine, Inyo, Nevada, Siskiyou

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