Cirsium lecontei

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Cirsium lecontei
Cirsium lecontei 153786477.jpg
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Cirsium
Species:
C. lecontei
Binomial name
Cirsium lecontei
Synonyms [1]
  • Aplotaxis pungensDC.
  • Carduus lecontei(Torr. & A.Gray) Pollard
  • Cirsium virginianumHook.
  • Cnicus arvensisHook. 1835 not (L.) Roth 1797
  • Cnicus lecontei(Torr. & A.Gray) A.Gray
  • Cnicus virginianusPursh
LeConte's thistle Sun swamp thistle 2.jpg
LeConte's thistle

Cirsium lecontei, often called the Le Conte's thistle, is a North American plant species native to the southeastern United States. It is a perennial, or sometimes biennial, species of the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae. It grows along the coastal plain from Louisiana to North Carolina. [2]

Contents

The flowering season is mainly spring to summer. [3]

Description

Cirsium lecontei grows to about 35–110 cm and has a taproot, sometimes with root sprouts. [3] The plant is spiny and should be handled with care. The flowers are usually pink. The plant requires full sun. Le Conte's Thistle has a Wetland Indicator Status of FACW (facultative wetland, meaning that it usually occurs in wetlands but not always). [4] The stems are loosely arachnoid and stiffly ascending. Leaves have blades that are linear to oblong or narrowly elliptic, loosely arachnoid when young, abaxial and adaxial faces glabrous (smooth), and lobes undivided or coarsely few toothed. Basal leaves sometimes absent at flowering, petiolate. Heads born singly or 2–5 or 10 in open, corymbiform arrays. Penduncles are 5–30 cm elevated above stem leaves. Cypselae are light brown, 5–5.75 mm long. [3] Plants are often unbranched or sparingly branched, with single terminal flower heads that are above the foliage (plant leaves). Stem and lower leaf surfaces have cob webby hairs. With age, the plant starts losing the hairs and becoming glabrous (hairless, smooth). Leaves of the mid-stem are approximately 15 cm long, the leaves gradually reduce in size up the stem, and are pinnately lobed. Corollas have feather-like pappus bristles (modified sepals) that are pinkish/purple. [5]

Distribution

Cirsium lecontei occurs on the sandy pinelands of southern coastal plain in damp soil (where co-occurring species include Myrica, Cyrilla, and Ilex), specifically in the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina. [3] They are also found in moist to wet grassy pine savannahs and pine barrens, bogs (other species present include pitcher plants, Ilex , sedges, grasses, and sphagnum), and roadside ditches. [6]

Threats

Cirsium lecontei occurs mostly in North Carolina but even there it appears to be rare. Its presence is also rare from South Carolina south to Florida and west to Louisiana. Thus, populations tend to be very small and can be as small as one individual. [6] The probable cause decreasing presence of these species are conversion of habitat to pine plantation which may include site prep activities (such as bedding and herbicides),inappropriate fire timing, and commercial and residential development. [5]

Species origin

R.J. Moore and C. Frankton (1969) suggested that the species may have originated as a product of ancient hybridization between the ancestors of C. horridulum and C. nuttallii . They also suggested a relationship between C. lecontei and C. grahamii of Arizona and hypothesized an ancient dispersal from the southeastern coastal plain to western cordillera. [3]

Related Research Articles

<i>Cirsium</i> Genus of flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae

Cirsium is a genus of perennial and biennial flowering plants in the Asteraceae, one of several genera known commonly as thistles. They are more precisely known as plume thistles. These differ from other thistle genera in having feathered hairs to their achenes. The other genera have a pappus of simple unbranched hairs.

<i>Cirsium vulgare</i> Species of flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae

Cirsium vulgare, the spear thistle, bull thistle, or common thistle, is a species of the Asteraceae genus Cirsium, native throughout most of Europe, Western Asia, and northwestern Africa. It is also naturalised in North America, Africa, and Australia and is an invasive weed in some areas. It is the national flower of Scotland.

<i>Cirsium arvense</i> Species of flowering plant

Cirsium arvense is a perennial species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native throughout Europe and western Asia, northern Africa and widely introduced elsewhere. The standard English name in its native area is creeping thistle. It is also commonly known as Canada thistle and field thistle.

<i>Cirsium fontinale</i> Species of thistle

Cirsium fontinale, the fountain thistle, is a flowering perennial herb in the family Asteraceae. It is endemic to California. The genus Cirsium is commonly known as the "thistle" genus, Cirsium being the Greek word for 'thistle.'

<i>Cirsium arizonicum</i> Species of thistle

Cirsium arizonicum, the Arizona thistle, is a North American species of thistle in the family Asteraceae, native to the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It has been found in Arizona, southeastern California, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, Sonora, and northwestern Chihuahua.

<i>Cirsium discolor</i> Species of thistle

Cirsium discolor, the field thistle, is a North American species of plants in the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae. It is native to thirty-three states in the United States as well four Canadian provinces. It occurs across much of eastern and central Canada as well as eastern and central United States. It has been found from New Brunswick west to Saskatchewan and south as far as Texas and Georgia.

<i>Cirsium heterophyllum</i> Species of thistle

Cirsium heterophyllum, the melancholy thistle, is an erect spineless herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to Europe and western Asia, where it grows in upland meadows, grasslands, road verges and open woodland.

<i>Cirsium vinaceum</i> Species of thistle

Cirsium vinaceum is a rare species of thistle known by the common name Sacramento Mountains thistle. It is endemic to Otero County, New Mexico, in the United States, where it is known only from the Sacramento Mountains. The plant can be found in six canyon systems in a southern section of this mountain range spanning about 32 kilometers. It is rare because it is limited to a specific type of mountain wetland which is both naturally uncommon and threatened by a number of forces. The plant was federally listed as threatened in 1987.

<i>Lysimachia asperulifolia</i> Species of plant

Lysimachia asperulifolia is a rare species of flowering plant in the Primulaceae known by the common name rough-leaved loosestrife and roughleaf yellow loosestrife. It is endemic to the Atlantic coastal plain in North Carolina and northern South Carolina in the United States, where there are 64 known populations. It is a federally listed endangered species of the United States.

<i>Tiedemannia canbyi</i> Species of flowering plant

Tiedemannia canbyi is a rare species of flowering plant in the carrot family known as Canby's dropwort and Canby's cowbane. It is native to the southeastern United States, where it occurs on the Atlantic coastal plain from North Carolina to Georgia, as well as the Chesapeake Bay area. It is threatened by the loss of the wetland habitat in which it grows. It is a federally listed endangered species of the United States.

<i>Cirsium parryi</i> Species of thistle

Cirsium parryi, or Parry's thistle, is a species of North American flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. It is native to the southwestern United States, where it has been found in Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico.

<i>Cirsium muticum</i> Species of thistle

Cirsium muticum, also known as swamp thistle, marsh thistle, dunce-nettle, or horsetops, is a North American species of plants in the family Asteraceae, native to central and eastern Canada and the central and eastern United States.

<i>Ilex ambigua</i> Species of holly

Ilex ambigua is a species of flowering plant in the holly family known by the common names Carolina holly and sand holly. It is native to the southeastern and south-central United States, along the coastal plain from North Carolina to Texas, inland as far as Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee.

<i>Cirsium perplexans</i> Species of thistle

Cirsium perplexans is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names Rocky Mountain thistle and Adobe Hills thistle. It is endemic to Colorado in the United States, where it occurs in the Colorado and Gunnison River Valleys in the Rocky Mountains.

<i>Cirsium wrightii</i> Species of thistle

Cirsium wrightii, or Wright's marsh thistle, is an endangered species of North American plants in the family Asteraceae. It is a monocarpic perennial sometimes reaching as much as 300 cm in height.

Cirsium drummondii, called Drummond's thistle, dwarf thistle or short-stemmed thistle, is a North American species of plant in the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae. The species is native to central and western Canada, in every province from Ontario to British Columbia, plus the Northwest Territories. In the United States, it has been found only in the Black Hills of Wyoming and South Dakota.

Cirsium foliosum , also called leafy thistle, foliose thistle, elk thistle, or Evert's thistle, is a North American plant species in the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae. The species is native to Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Alberta, British Columbia, and Wyoming.

Cirsium nuttallii, called Nuttall's thistle, is a North American species of plants in the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae. The species is native to the coastal plain of the southeastern and south-central United States, from eastern Texas to southeastern Virginia.

<i>Cirsium repandum</i> Species of thistle

Cirsium repandum is a North American species of plants in the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae. Common names include sand-hill thistle and coastal-plain thistle. The species is native to the south-eastern United States, the coastal plain in Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas.

<i>Cirsium texanum</i> Species of thistle

Cirsium texanum is a species of plants in the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae found in North America. Common names include Texas thistle, Texas purple thistle or southern thistle. The species is native to northern Mexico and the southern Great Plains of the south-central United States.

References

  1. ↑ The Plant List, Cirsium lecontei Torr. & A.Gray
  2. ↑ Biota of North America Program 2014 county distribution map
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Keil, David J. & Ochsmann, J. (2006): 24. Cirsium lecontei. In: Flora of North America North of Mexico Vol. 19 (Magnoliophyta: Asteridae, part 6: Asteraceae, part 1). Oxford University Press. ISBN   0-19-530563-9 HTML fulltext
  4. ↑ United States Department of Agriculture Plants Profile
  5. 1 2 Google document, Cirsium lecontei
  6. 1 2 Naturereserve, LeContes thistle
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