Distribution: Occurring on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; British Columbia to Oregon.
Habitat: Forest openings and edge, meadows, roadsides, and other open areas at low to middle elevations in the mountains.
Flowers: July-September
Origin: Native
Growth Duration: Biennial, Perennial
Conservation Status: Not of concern
Pollination: Bumblebees, bees, butterflies, beetles, hummingbirds
Tap-rooted biennial or short-lived perennial, flowering only once, 4-20 dm. tall, the stem succulent, thick below and tapering.
Leaves green but sparsely covered with long, soft hairs on both surfaces, moderately spiny, lobed, lanceolate to oblanceolate, up to 3 dm. long.
Heads usually borne singly at the ends of the branches; involucre 2-4 cm. high, spider-webby, its bracts loose, not much inbricate, all slender and tapering, all but the inner with short spine tips; flowers all tubular, bright pink-purple, the corolla tube 7-11 mm. long, the corolla lobes 5-10 mm. long; style exerted 3-8 mm. beyond the corolla lobes; receptacle densely bristly.
Publication: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 420. 1841.
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var. edule – edible thistle, Indian thistle, Macoun's thistle
Occurring on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; British Columbia to Oregon. -
var. wenatchense – Wenatchee thistle Occurring east of the Cascades crest in central Washington, where endemic to the Wenatchee Mountains in Chelan and Kittitas counties.
PNW Herbaria: Specimen records of Cirsium edule in the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria database
WA Flora Checklist: Cirsium edule checklist entry
OregonFlora: Cirsium edule information
E-Flora BC: Cirsium edule atlas page
CalPhotos: Cirsium edule photos
