Yellow Thistle

(Cirsium horridulum)

 

Color Photograph: © by and courtesy of William S. Justice, Smithsonian Institution

Line Drawing: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, Second Edition.

 

Yellow Thistle (Cirsium horridulum)

Identification: Flower head large (3 inches in diameter), ovate topped with a spray of yellow or yellow-purple florets. Flower head embraced from the bottom with a number of leaf-like, spiny bracts. Stem with isolated spines but without spiny plates or ridges. Leaves elongate, incised, with a vaguely rectangular appearance. Plant 1 to 3 feet in height.

Distribution: A coastal species occurring from southern Maine southward to Florida and westward to Louisiana and Texas.

Habitat: Yellow Thistle is most commonly found on sandy shores and salt marshes along the eastern coast.

Flowering period: May to August.

Yellow Thistle (Cirsium horridulum)

Similar Species:

The yellow or yellow-purple florets ands the dense cluster of leaf-like bracts at the base of the flower head are distinctive.

Similar Species

No Similar Species