Cirsium heterophyllum(L.) Hill

Melancholy Thistle

WFO wfo-0000014883 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Cirsium heterophyllum, photographed by Ilkka Kaita-aho
fig. a Ilkka Kaita-aho, CC0 1.0 / 2022-06-14 / obs. 206000353
Cirsium heterophyllum, photographed by Yurii Basov
fig. b Yurii Basov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204155465
Cirsium heterophyllum, photographed by Yurii Basov
fig. c Yurii Basov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202914378
Cirsium heterophyllum, photographed by Татьяна Горбушина
fig. d Татьяна Горбушина, CC0 1.0 / obs. 204431879
Cirsium heterophyllum, photographed by Tatiana Strus
fig. e Tatiana Strus, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201493171
Cirsium heterophyllum, photographed by Eugene Popov
fig. f Eugene Popov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201519392
Cirsium heterophyllum, photographed by David Sandler
fig. g David Sandler, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200243559
Cirsium heterophyllum, photographed by rainerburkard
fig. h rainerburkard, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 168347879

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 35 botanical countries

Regions where Cirsium heterophyllum is native: Altay, Buryatiya, Chita, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Mongolia, North Caucasus, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutiya, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, Greenland AltayBuryatiyaChitaIrkutskKrasnoyarskMongoliaNorth CaucasusTuvaWest SiberiaYakutiyaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyIrelandItalyNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandUkraineGreenland
Native distribution of Cirsium heterophyllum, 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
Austria AUT EUROPE
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Buryatiya BRY
Chita CTA
Irkutsk IRK
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Mongolia MON
North Caucasus NCS
Tuva TVA
West Siberia WSB
Yakutiya YAK
Greenland GNL NORTHERN AMERICA

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

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.

Flowering 400 in flower of 574 examined

Peak flowering in Jul. Each bar is the share of Cirsium heterophyllum observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 400 of 574 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 6 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 16 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 ambiguus Pers.
  • Carduus autareticus Vill.
  • Carduus hastatus Lam.
  • Carduus helenifolius Salisb.
  • Carduus heterophyllus L.
  • Carduus polymorphus Lapeyr.
  • Cirsium ambiguum All.
  • Cirsium autareticum Mutel
  • Cirsium carolorum C.Jenner ex Nyman
  • Cirsium hastatum Thell. ex Schinz
  • Cirsium heterophyllum subsp. heterophyllum
  • Cirsium heterophyllum var. heterophyllum
  • Cirsium pauciflorum W.D.J.Koch
  • Cnicus ambiguus Loisel.
  • Cnicus heterophyllus (L.) Retz.
  • Cynara diversifolia Stokes

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.