''Cirsium mohavense'' is a species of
thistle known by the common names virgin thistle and Mojave thistle. It is native to the southwestern
United States, where it grows in moist areas in otherwise dry habitat, such as desert springs. It is most common in the
Mojave Desert, found also in the southern
Great Basin
The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic basin, endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California ...
and other nearby regions of
California,
Nevada, western
Arizona, and southwestern
Utah.
''Cirsium mohavense'' is a
biennial or
perennial growing up to 2.5 meters (100 inches or 8 feet 4 inches) tall. The densely woolly stem branches and spreads near the top. The leaves are toothed to deeply lobed, woolly, spiny, and up to 60 centimeters (24 inches) long near the base of the plant. The
inflorescence is a spreading array of clusters of
flower heads
A pseudanthium (Greek for "false flower"; ) is an inflorescence that resembles a flower. The word is sometimes used for other structures that are neither a true flower nor a true inflorescence. Examples of pseudanthia include flower heads, compos ...
, each generally less than 3 centimeters long and wide. The
flower head is coated in spiny
phyllaries and filled with white, lavender, or pink flowers. The fruit is an
achene
An achene (; ), also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenocarp, is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate (formed from one carpel) and indehiscent (they do not ope ...
a few millimeters long with a
pappus on top about 1.5 centimeters long.
Flora of North America, ''Cirsium mohavense''
/ref>
References
External links
Jepson Manual Treatment of ''Cirsium mohavense''''Cirsium mohavense'' — Calphotos Photos gallery, University of California
mohavense
Flora of the Southwestern United States
Endemic flora of the United States
Natural history of the Mojave Desert
Plants described in 1893
Taxa named by Edward Lee Greene
{{Cynareae-stub