Rosette thistle

Cirsium congdonii R. J. Moore & Frankton, Canad. J. Bot. 45: 1738. 1967

Plants acaulescent or nearly so (with dense rosettes of leaves and cluster of sessile or subsessile heads). Stems absent or very short, simple, stout, fleshy, very leafy. Leaves: blades oblong to oblanceolate or elliptic, shallowly pinnately lobed or sometimes unlobed, longer spines slender, less than 1 cm, abaxial faces green and ± glabrous to white-tomentose, adaxial faces green, glabrous or villous with septate trichomes. Heads 1–many, sessile or subsessile, crowded. Involucres 2–3 cm. P hyllaries: outer and mid lanceolate to ovate, spines slender, 1–4 mm; apices of inner linear-acuminate, often twisted, entire or minutely toothed. Corollas pink to reddish purple, 22–30 mm, tubes 10–15 mm, throats 5–7.5 mm, lobes 4–7 mm; style tips 3–5 mm. Cypselae 4–4.5 mm; pappi 17–28 mm. 2n = 34 (as C. congdonii).

Flowering summer (Jun–Aug). Meadows, springs, stream banks; 1500–3100 m; Calif., Nev.

Variety congdonii grows from the Sierra Nevada of western Nevada and eastern California to the San Bernardino Mountains of southern California.