Cirsium mohavense

Mojave thistle

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Mojave thistle is a California native perennial herb found in the southern eastern desert and desert mountains in damp soil around springs, canyons, and streams at elevations of 250 to 2,800 meters. Flowering from July to October, this plant produces white to pink or lavender flowers in heads 1.5 to 2.5 centimeters wide, arranged in loose to crowded flat-topped clusters. Growing with 1 to several stems that are grayish and slightly branched, reaching up to 6 decimeters tall and covered in dense gray tomentose hair. Its leaves are distinctively spiny, with proximal leaves 1.5 to 6 decimeters long, elliptic to oblanceolate, deeply lobed with rigidly spreading lobes and main spines 3 to 20 millimeters long. The fruit is 3 to 6 millimeters long with a pappus 14 to 16 millimeters in length.

Habitat: Damp soil around springs, canyons, streams

Bloom period: Jul-Oct

Elevation: 250-2800 m

Bioregions: SNE, DMoj

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