刺儿菜 ci er cai

Breea segetum (Bunge) Kitamura; Carduus segetum (Bunge) Franchet; Cephalonoplos segetum (Bunge) Kitamura; Cirsium argunense Candolle; C. arvense f. albiflorum Kitagawa; C. arvense var. mite Wimmer & Grabowski; C. arvense var. setosum (Willdenow) C. A. Meyer; C. arvense var. subulatum (Ledebour) Ledebour; C. laevigatum Tausch; C. segetum Bunge; C. setosum (Willdenow) M. Bieberstein; C. setosum f. albiflorum (Kitagawa) Kitagawa; C. setosum var. subulatum Ledebour; Cnicus arvensis var. setosus (Willdenow) Maximowicz; C. setosus (Willdenow) Besser; Serratula setosa Willdenow.

Stems glabrous or sparsely felted. Leaves ± concolorous, surface smooth, abaxially green to grayish green and glabrous or sparsely cobwebby, adaxially green and glabrous. Lower and middle cauline leaves usually sessile, ± narrowly elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, 7-15 × 1.5-10 cm, undivided or sometimes pinnately divided into entire lobes, base usually cuneate, margin entire and densely fringed with tender spinules, apex obtuse to rounded. Upper cauline leaves elliptic, lanceolate, or linear-lanceolate, gradually smaller upward. Involucre glabrous. Outer and middle phyllaries with an apical spinule less than 0.5 mm. Fl. and fr. May-Sep.

Mountain slopes, by rivers, wet lands, farmlands; 100-2700 m. Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Gansu, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia; SW Asia, Europe].

Cirsium arvense var. integrifolium is the most common variant in China. The whole plant is used medicinally.