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Dwarf thistle

Cirsium drummondii

Also called Drummond's Thistle, Short Stemmed Thistle

Dwarf thistle
Photo: Chelsea Monks, Black Hills National Forest, Public domain

Dwarf thistle is a North American thistle, native to central and western Canada and the Black Hills of the US, that grows as a biennial or short-lived perennial with spiny leaves and purple flower heads. Give it full sun and well-drained soil; it is a wild native rather than a common garden plant.

Family
Asteraceae (Daisy family)
Grows as
Perennial
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly once established; it tolerates dry prairie conditions.
Soil
Well-drained, open soil such as gravel or sandy loam.
Temperature
Hardy to cold continental winters; protect young seedlings from hard frost.
How easy
Easy
Native range
Subarctic America to WC. U.S.A.

About

Cirsium drummondii, called Drummond's thistle, dwarf thistle or short-stemmed thistle, is a North American species of plant in the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae. The species is native to central and western Canada, in every province from Ontario to British Columbia, plus the Northwest Territories. In the United States, it has been found only in the Black Hills of Wyoming and South Dakota.

Cirsium drummondii is a biennial or perennial herb up to 110 cm (44 inches) tall, blooming only once before dying. Leaves have thin spines along the edges. There is sometimes only one flowering head per plant, but sometimes several, with purple (rarely white) disc florets but no ray florets.

Other Cirsium plants

Dwarf Thistle · Tall thistle · Rose thistle · Franciscan thistle · Alishan Thistle · Arizona thistle · Creeping Thistle · Barneby's thistle · Cirsium boninense · Cirsium brachycephalum · Palouse thistle · Clustered thistle

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cirsium drummondii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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