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 Pasture Thistle
Cirsium pumilum
From
Michigan St. University
Recognition: Hill’s thistle is a generally
short (25-60 cm tall), perennial thistle with a deep, hollowed, and thickened
taproot. The leafy stems are soft, ridged and sparsely pubescent or tomentose
(with woolly hairs), with 1-2 short branches near the top terminating with a
single, large, pink flower head 4-7 cm high. The outer bracts at the base of the
flower head are tipped by slender, short, and appressed spines. The
elliptic-oblong leaves form a basal rosette with only a few progressively
smaller leaves on the stem. The leaf margins are typically undulating to very
shallowly lobed and sometimes slightly tomentose below, but often smooth on both
surfaces.
Habitat: Throughout its range Hill’s thistle is
known from dry, sandy, gravelly soils in prairies, jack pine barrens, oak
savanna, and open woods.
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LucasLand
