Click on the image below to view an
expanded illustration for this species.
|
General:
Biennial herb; stems glabrous, not spiny, 0.3-2.4 m tall.
Leaves:
Basal leaves lacking; stem leaves lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate in outline, deeply lobed or pinnately cut, up to 40 cm long and 15 cm wide, nearly glabrous or glabrous, spiny-margined.
Flowers:
Heads discoid, 2-8 cm wide, solitary and nodding at the ends of branches; involucres hemispheric; involucral bracts with prominent midribs, the inner lanceolate, often twisted, tips unarmed, the middle and outer egg-shaped 2-8 mm wide, spreading or reflexed, glabrous, tipped with a 3-4 mm spine; disk flowers reddish-purple.
Fruits:
Achenes glabrous, egg-shaped, light brown with darker longitudinal lines and a narrow, lighter rim at the tip; pappus whitish, minutely finely-barbed bristles.
Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia
|
