Cirsium ochrocentrum var. ochrocentrum

Yellowspine thistle

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Yellowspine thistle is a naturalized perennial herb found in northern Channel Islands, Western Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, and Mojave Province in disturbed areas and fields at elevations below 1,700 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces white to pale lavender or pink flowers in heads 2.5 to 4.5 centimeters wide, with distinctive spiny involucres. Growing with erect stems 25 to 100 centimeters tall, covered in white woolly tomentose, the plant develops from runner roots with generally simple lower stems and few branches toward the top. Its leaves are deeply lobed with rigidly spreading segments, featuring prominent spines 3 to 15 millimeters long, with proximal leaves up to 25 centimeters long and elliptic to oblanceolate in shape. The fruit is 6 to 9 millimeters long with a pappus 20 to 30 millimeters in length.

Habitat: Disturbed areas, fields

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: < 1700 m

Bioregions: n ChI, WTR, PR, MP

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