Single Record

Participant Info

Species
Cirsium canescens
Family
Asteraceae
CommonName
creamy thistle
Presence
YES
Status
native
EarliestDate
1951
LatestDate
2021
Ecosystem
basin, shrubland, foothill, montane, sanddunes
Geobotanical
SSanjuans, NCristos, UBasin
Counties
Alamosa, Conejos, Saguache
Passes
WildlifePreserves
Baca, Great Sand Dunes
Other Localities
Comments
While present in many Colorado counties, especially in the Plains and Front Range, creamy thistle is recorded from only three locations in the Watershed: four specimens from the Baca National Wildlife Refuge; two from the Great Sand Dunes; and one from Conejos Co. The last, Mary E. McDonald's 2021 photorecord, would add Conejos to Watershed counties indicated in Ackerfield (2022) and BONAP (2022). Sharples (2017) found Cirsium canescens common on the west slopes of the South San Juans Wilderness Area. The center of this native species in the USA is Wyoming but the plant has spread, for instance into the plains of Nebraska. So the Watershed records lie at the southernmost edge of the USA distribution. BONAP shows a few counties in New Mexico, but Allred et al. 2020 do not.