Cirsium texanum
Family: Asteraceae
Plant Description: Annual to 120 cm high with spiny leaves 10-30 cm long, alternate. Heads solitary, 3-4 cm high, discoid. Corolla rosy-purple to purple-violet.
Plant Trivia: Thistles not unique to Texas. As the story goes, thistles saved Scotland from a sneak attack during a war with the Danes. Moving barefoot in order to make less noise) at night, the Danes suddenly encountered a large patch of thistles, and their yelps of pained warned the Scots.
Field Identification:
Occurrence: Frequent on sandy loam or caliches in prairies, openings and waste places and along roads; rarely on beach shell.
Bloom Period: February-June
Plant Use: super butterfly nectar source. Seeds attract many birds.
Key to species of Cirsium:
- Heads subtended by a whorl of spiny bracts……………..C. horridulum
Heads not bracted………………………………………………………………..C. texanum
stxflora 