Thistle, Field

Cirsium discolor will be an exciting find once I find one HAVEN’T YET! ……… for me because — at last — a native thistle instead of one we are advised to eradicate! Field thistle is native I’m happy to repeat, thank you very much! Like all thistles, the seeds are much-loved by gold finches.

In appearance, the flower head is fluffy, soft and large, 1.5 to 2″ across ranging in color from pink, to lavender to sometimes white. The scaly bracts, however, seem the best way to get a basic first ID, for in general our natives have bracts that are flat, green with a white racing stripe down their middle, quite different from the exotic thistles that abound. While the bracts have a 1/4″ spine coming from the each one, the leaves are not that spiny, or are softly spiny, like other native thistles.