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.
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.
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.
Cirsium quercetorum is a species of thistle endemic to coastal California, its common names include brownie thistle and Alameda thistle.
Cirsium neomexicanum is a North American species of thistle known by the common names New Mexico thistle, powderpuff thistle, lavender thistle, foss thistle and desert 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.
Cirsium ochrocentrum is a species of thistle known by the common name yellowspine thistle. It is native to the Great Plains of the Central United States and to the desert regions of the western United States and northern Mexico. Its range extends from eastern Oregon east to the Black Hills of South Dakota, south as far as the Mexican State of Durango.
Cirsium rhothophilum is a rare North American species of thistle known by the common name surf thistle. It is endemic to California, where it is known only from the coastline around the border between San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties. It grows in sand dunes and coastal scrub near the beach.
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.
Cirsium pumilum var. hillii is a type of thistle endemic to North America. The common name for this plant is Hill's thistle.
Cirsium altissimum is a North American species of plants in the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae. Common name is tall thistle or roadside thistle. The species is native to the eastern and Central United States, with a range extending from Massachusetts west to North Dakota and south to Texas and the Florida Panhandle.
Cirsium brevifolium is a North American species of plants in the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae. Common name is Palouse thistle. The species is native to the northwestern United States, in the States of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. The plant is particularly common in the Palouse Prairie near Pullman, Washington.
Cirsium carolinianum is a North American species of plants in the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae. Common name is Carolina thistle or purple thistle or soft thistle or smallhead thistle. The species is native to the central and southern United States, from eastern Texas east to Virginia and the Carolinas, north to the Ohio Valley.
Cirsium clavatum, the Fish Lake thistle or fringed thistle, is a North American species of plants in the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae. The species is native to the western United States, the States of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico.
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 helenioides, the melancholy thistle, is an Asian and Arctic species of plants in the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae. The species is native to Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan.
Cirsium horridulum, called bristly thistle, horrid thistle, yellow thistle or bull thistle, is a North American species of plants in the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae. It is an annual or biennial. The species is native to the eastern and southern United States from New England to Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma as well as to Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Bahamas.
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.
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.
Cirsium turneri is a North American species of plants in the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae. Common names include cliff thistle. The species grows in crevices in limestone cliffs in northern Mexico and western Texas.
