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Carduus nutans

(Chardon Penche)

Overview

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Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in English:

Chardon Penche, Musk Thistle, Nodding Plumeless Thistle, Nodding Plumeless-Thistle, Nodding Thistle, Plumeless Thistle

Common Names in French:

Chardon Pench, Chardon Penché

Common Names in Portuguese:

Cardo, Cardo-Pendente

Description

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Family Compositae

The largest family of flowering plants , the Compositae (Asteraceae), comprising about 1,100 genera and more than 20,000 species and characterized by many small flowers arranged in a head looking like a single flower and subtended by an involucre of bracts. A head may consist of both ray flowers and disk flowers, as in the sunflower, of disk flowers only, as in the burdock, or of ray flowers only, as in the dandelion.

Genus Carduus

Annuals or biennials [perennials ], 30-200(-400) cm. spiny , ± tomentose , sometimes glabrate . Stems erect , simple to much branched, (spiny-winged) . Leaves basal and cauline; petiolate or sessile; blade margins spiny dentate, often 1-2-pinnately lobed , faces glabrous or hairy , eglandular . Heads discoid , borne singly or 2-20 in dense clusters or corymbiform arrays. (Peduncles naked or leafy-bracteate, spiny-winged or not winged .) Involucres cylindric to spheric. Phyllaries many in 7-10+ series, linear to broadly ovate , bases appressed , margins entire, apices ascending to spreading or reflexed , acute, spine-tipped. Receptacles flat, epaleate, bearing setiform scales ("flattened bristles"). Florets several-many; corollas white to pink or purple, ± bilateral , tubes long, slender, throats short, campanulate , abruptly expanded from tubes, lobes linear; anther bases sharply short-tailed, apical appendages oblong ; style branches: fused portions with slightly, minutely puberulent , swollen basal nodes, distally papillate or glabrous, distinct portions very short. Cypselae ovoid , slightly compressed , faces smooth . glabrous, attachment scars slightly lateral ; pappi persistent or falling in rings . of many minutely barbed , basally connate bristles or setiform, minutely barbed scales ("minutely flattened bristles"). x = 8, 9, 10, 11, 13.

Species ca. 90: introduced ; Eurasia , Africa.[1]

Physical Description

Species Carduus nutans

Annuals or biennials, 40-200+ cm. Stems glabrous to tomentose ; teeth of wings to 10 mm, wing spines 2-10 mm. Leaves: basal tapering to winged petioles , blades 10-40 cm, margins 1-2×-pinnately lobed ; cauline sessile, shorter, margins less divided , glabrous or ± hairy . Heads borne singly or in corymbiform arrays, sometimes a few axillary , at least terminal head usually conspicuously pedunculate , often nodding , 20-40 mm. Peduncles 2-30 cm, unwinged distally or throughout, finely tomentose. Involucres hemispheric , 20-60 mm × 20-70 mm. Phyllaries lanceolate to ovate , outer and middle with appressed bases 2-4 mm wide and spreading to reflexed , appendages 2-7 mm wide, proximally glabrous or ± tomentose, distally glabrous to minutely scabridulous . spine tips 1-4 mm, inner phyllaries with unarmed , straight or twisted tips. Corollas purple, 15-28 mm, lobes 2.5-3 times longer than throat . Cypselae golden to brown, 4-5 mm; pappus bristles 13-25 mm. 2n = 16. Flowering late spring-summer (May-Sep). [source]

Carduus nutans is part of a variable complex that has been treated as one to several species or as a single species with several subspecies or varieties. The New World plants apparently represent multiple introductions, probably representing more than one of these taxa. Various intermediates are evident, and many specimens cannot be reliably assigned. Insufficient evidence exists to reliably apply the names of the various segregate entities to North American material . In a biosystematic study, two subspecies of C. nutans were differentiated in Canada (A. M. Desrochers et al. 1988). Subspecies nutans was characterized as having arachnoid phylla-ries with the terminal appendage only slightly wider than the appressed phyllary base, moderately to densely pubescent leaf bases, and a head diameter of 1.5-3.5 cm. Subspecies leiocephalus in contrast has glabrous phyllaries with the terminal appendage definitely wider than the base, glabrous or slightly pubescent bases, and heads 1.8-7 cm in diameter. Subspecies nutans was distributed in eastern Canada from Newfoundland to southern Ontario and subsp. leiocephalus from Ontario to British Columbia. Whether the results of the study (Desrochers et al.) are applicable to all the populations of musk thistles occurring in the United States has not been determined. [source]

Hybrids between Carduus acanthoides and C. nutans (C. ×orthocephalus Wallroth) have been documented from Ontario and Wisconsin and probably occur at other sites where the parental taxa co-occur. [source] Biennial (sometimes annual) up to eight feet tall, reproducing by seed only. Taproot large, fleshy , and hollow near soil surface. Stems tall, erect , and spiny , with spiny wings, lower portion branched. Leaves alternate, coarsely toothed , with prominent yellow spines. Flowers are large (as much as 2 in. across) on ends of long, nearly-naked stems, frequently drooping or nodding, purple to lavender. Bloom is in May or June, followed by seed production.

Habit: Forb/herb

Flowers: Bloom Period: June, July, August, September. • Flower Color: magenta, pink

Size/Age/Growth

Size: 12-18" tall.

Habitat

Aggressive weed of waste ground , pastures, roadsides, fields ; 0-3000 m ; introduced [2].

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 4,043 meters (0 to 13,264 feet).[3]

Ecology: Invasive: invades roadsides, pastures and open native habitats , hybridizes with Plumeless Thistle. Declared prohibited noxious weeds in Maryland. These weeds must be controlled by anyone owning or managing land within the State.

Biology

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Reproduction

Duration: Biennial, Perennial

Growth

Culture: Space 24-36" apart.

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Full Sun .

Moisture: Drought Tolerance: High

Temperature: Cold Hardiness: 3a, 3b, 4a, 4b, 5a, 5b, 6a, 6b, 7a, 7b, 8a, 8b, 9a, 9b, 10a, 10b, 11. (map)

Taxonomy

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Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 17-Nov-09

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Carduus

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 11 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

C. acanthoides (Plumeless Thistle) · C. crispus (Curled Plumless-Thistle) · C. nutans (Chardon Penche) · C. nutans macrocephalus (Musk Thistle) · C. nutans macrolepis (Chardon Penche) · C. nutans var. litoralis (Nodding Thistle) · C. orthocephalus (Plumeless Thistle) · C. pycnocephalus (Compact-Headed Thistle) · C. scariosus (Meadow Thistle) · C. tenuiflorus (Italian Thistle) · C. x orthocephalus (Plumeless Thistle)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 18, 2007:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. David J. Keil "Carduus". in Flora of North America Vol. 19, 20 and 21 Page 57, 66, 83, 91, 96, 97, 122. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. "Carduus nutans". in Flora of North America Vol. 19, 20 and 21 Page 91, 93. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  3. Mean = 168.330 meters (552.264 feet), Standard Deviation = 289.360 based on 11,067 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
Last Revised: 7/14/2012