Cirsium muticum Michx.

  • Authority

    Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

  • Family

    Asteraceae

  • Scientific Name

    Cirsium muticum Michx.

  • Description

    Species Description - Coarse biennial with several stout roots, 5–20 dm, branching and many-headed when well developed, villous or arachnoid when young, later glabrescent; lvs deeply pinnatifid into lanceolate or oblong, entire, lobed, or dentate segments, only weakly spiny, often very large, to 5.5 × 2 dm, sometimes thinly tomentose beneath, otherwise arachnoid-hirsute to subglabrous; invol 2–3.5 cm, multiseriate, its bracts ± tomentose, especially marginally, generally with a glutinous dorsal ridge, innocuous or with a vestigial spinule up to ca 0.5 mm, the inner commonly with loose, crisped tips, but not expanded; fls purple, pink, or deep lavender, rarely white; achenes 5 mm; 2n=20. Swamps and bogs, wet meadows, and moist woods and thickets; Nf. to Sask., s. to Del. and Mo. and in the mts. to N.C. and Tenn., and irregularly to Fla. and Tex. July–Oct.

  • Common Names

    swamp-thistle