Photos » Life » Unidentified Furry Prickly Plant (Thistle)

Taken on: 2008-03-29 16:11:23
Tags: Philadelphia, Valley Forge, prickly, Cirsium vulgare, bull thistle, thistle, MAWEP
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Nothing special as a picture but I was wondering what kind of plant this is. There's a close-up here.

See this photo on Flickr

Comments:
Nuytsia@Tas
I'd say this was a Cirsium species of some sort. The rosette looks pretty much like Cirsium vulgare, but I'm not sure how similar the native US Cirsium species get so it might be something else.
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Seen in What plant is that? (?)
Scott SM
Thanks Nuytsia@Tas. The leaves really look like bull thistle. I didn't realize thistle got so hairy. Wikipedia says "It is a tall biennial thistle, forming a rosette of leaves in the first year, and a flowering stem 1-2.5 m tall in the second year." So maybe I'm used to seeing the second year plants and never paid attention to the first year rosettes (didn't know that term til today). Pretty interesting stuff.
egle_k.
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Medicinal, Aromatic and Wild (or rare) Edible Plants, and we'd love to have this added to the group!