Cirsium scariosum var. citrinum

Southern meadow thistle

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Southern meadow thistle is a California native perennial found in the Tehama, Western Transverse Ranges, and Peninsular Ranges in meadows and forest openings with damp soil at elevations of 400 to 2,000 meters. Flowering from May to September, this plant produces white to faintly purple-tinged flowers in heads 2.5 to 4 centimeters wide, subtended by a basal rosette. Growing with stems 10 to 50 centimeters tall that are generally branched throughout, it forms a distinctive thistle-like structure. Its leaves are glabrous on the upper surface, with main leaf spines 2 to 7 millimeters long, and can be sparsely tomentose on the lower surface. The plant's delicate white flower heads and branching habit make it a distinctive inhabitant of California's moist woodland openings.

Habitat: Meadows, damp soil, openings in forest

Bloom period: May-Sep

Elevation: 400-2000 m

Bioregions: Teh, WTR, PR.

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