Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

TALL THISTLE

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Cirsium altissimum (L. ) Spreng.

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Chase County, Kansas

Biennial

Height: 3-8 feet

Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family

Flowering Period: August, September

Also Called:

Roadside thistle.

Stems:

Erect, large, coarse, branched above, greenish, pubescent.

Leaves:

Alternate, simple, short stalked or sessile, lanceolate to elliptic, 4 to 12 inches long, 1.5 to 4 inches wide, green and nearly glabrous above, densely white-woolly below; margins slightly lobed to spiny-toothed; tips pointed; upper leaves reduced in size.

Inflorescences:

Solitary urn-shaped heads, 1.5 to 2 inches tall, terminal; bracts overlapping, tipped with small yellow spines.

Flowers:

Ray florets absent; disk florets numerous, corollas light or dark rose to purplish.

Fruits:

Achenes, brown, tipped with white or gray feather-like bristles, enclosing small seed.

Habitat:

Open, moist to dry disturbed areas, roadsides, ditches, pastures, and thickets.

Distribution:

East 2/3 of Kansas.

Uses:

The Cherokee took an infusion of the leaves for neuralgia, a warm infusion of the roots as an aid for overeating, and used the plumose pappus bristles were to make blow dart tails. Songbirds will eat the seeds.

Comments:

Butterflies are often attracted to tall thistle.

Tall thistle inflorescence