Pleiacanthus spinosus

Thorny skeletonweed

Family: Asteraceae · Type: shrub · Native

Thorny skeletonweed is a California native shrub found in the Sierra Nevada, San Gabriel Mountains, San Bernardino Mountains, Great Basin, and Desert Mountains in gravelly washes, slopes, sagebrush scrub, and pinyon-juniper woodland at elevations of 425 to 2,900 meters. Flowering from June to September, this distinctive plant produces pink, lavender, or red-purple flowers (occasionally white) in solitary heads with delicate ligules. Growing with rigidly spreading branches 1 to 5 decimeters tall, it emerges from a woody caudex and features thorn-tipped branches with woolly-hairy axils. Its leaves are sparse, with proximal linear leaves and distal bract-like leaves, creating a skeletal, architectural form. The plant produces cylindric fruits with five faces, each with a long, narrow groove, and topped with a persistent pappus of light tan bristles.

Habitat: Gravelly washes, slopes, sagebrush scrub, pinyon/juniper woodland

Bloom period: Jun-Sep

Elevation: 425-2900 m

Bioregions: SNH, SnGb, SnBr, GB, DMtns

California counties: Alpine, Inyo, Lassen, Mono, Los Angeles, Siskiyou, Tulare, Nevada, Sierra, Plumas, Modoc

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