WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Reaching 6-feet tall with spiny winged stems with numerous branches, this invasive weed can densely cover over-grazed pastures and disturbed areas. Note the flower heads with showy clusters of purple, filament-like florets, spiny-winged stems, and the short, bristle-like spines on the top surface of the leaves.

FLOWER: June–November. Flower heads rounded to bell-shaped, 1.5–2 inches diameter (3.8–5 cm), 1–2 inches long (2.5-5 cm), with purple disk florets; phyllaries with loose webby hairs and radiating, tapering, spiny tips.

LEAVES: Alternate, first-year rosettes can reach 3 feet in diameter. Blades oblong to lance-shaped, 6–16-inches long (15–40 cm), margins flat or twisted with spiny lobes along midrib, upper surface with tiny bristle-like spines (use lens), lower surface gray-hairy with hairy veins; leaf bases grow down the stem making it winged.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly soils roadsides, fields, disturbed areas.

ELEVATION: 4,500 to 7,500 feet.

RANGE: Widespread in western U. S., scattered in all 50 states.

SIMILAR SPECIES: 12 species of Cirsium in NM, 5 in 3 or less counties, and two introduced. This large-scale thistle is the only one with spiny wings on the stems and tiny, bristle-like spines on the upper leaf veins.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread in NM in low- to mid-elevation disturbed habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Chaves, Cibola, Colfax, Grant, Harding, Lincoln, Los Alamos, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, Roosevelt, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Taos, Torrance, Union, Valencia.