Cirsium canescensNutt.

prairie thistle

WFO wfo-0000008419 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Cirsium canescens, photographed by Colin Croft
fig. a Colin Croft, CC BY 4.0 / 2019-06-14 / obs. 42016002
Cirsium canescens, photographed by Colin Croft
fig. b Colin Croft, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 32633053
Cirsium canescens, photographed by Colin Croft
fig. c Colin Croft, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 42317990
Cirsium canescens, photographed by aiwendil
fig. d aiwendil, CC0 1.0 / obs. 89108883
Cirsium canescens, photographed by Alissa Iverson
fig. e Alissa Iverson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 83012111
Cirsium canescens, photographed by Ron Burkert
fig. f Ron Burkert, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 43817980
Cirsium canescens, photographed by Andrea Grover
fig. g Andrea Grover, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 40943569
Cirsium canescens, photographed by Owen McElroy
fig. h Owen McElroy, CC0 1.0 / obs. 24740284

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 8 botanical countries

Regions where Cirsium canescens is native: California, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, South Dakota, Wyoming CaliforniaColoradoMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaSouth DakotaWyoming
Native distribution of Cirsium canescens, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
California CAL NORTHERN AMERICA
Colorado COL
Missouri MSO
Montana MNT
Nebraska NEB
Nevada NEV
South Dakota SDA
Wyoming WYO

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 18 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Carduus dacoticus A.Nelson ex Visher
  • Carduus discolor Hook.
  • Carduus nebraskensis Britton
  • Carduus nelsonii Pammel
  • Carduus plattense Rydb.
  • Carduus plattensis var. plattensis
  • Carduus undulatus var. canescens (Nutt.) Porter
  • Cirsium nebraskense Lunell
  • Cirsium nebraskense var. formidolosum Lunell
  • Cirsium nebraskense var. nebraskense
  • Cirsium nelsonii Petr.
  • Cirsium plattense (Rydb.) Cockerell
  • Cirsium plattense (Rydb.) Cockerell ex Daniels
  • Cirsium plattense (Rydb.) Fernald ex B.L.Rob.
  • Cirsium plattense (Rydb.) Fernald
  • Cnicus canescens Pammel
  • Cnicus nelsonii Pammel
  • Cnicus undulatus var. canescens (Nutt.) A.Gray

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.