Plants › Sunflowers, Daisies, Asters, and Allies
cotton thistle
Onopordum acanthium
32 photos
Study shows up to four per card, from different observers, so you learn the species rather than one picture. Heart the good ones and swap any you do not like.
Photos you add are credited to you, and you keep the copyright.
Easily confused with
Bull ThistleCirsium vulgare
musk thistleCarduus nutans
Illyrian thistleOnopordum illyricum
Heraldic ThistleOnopordum nervosum
Broad-winged ThistleCarduus acanthoides
wavyleaf thistleCirsium undulatum
creeping thistleCirsium arvense
milk thistleSilybum marianum
Study checks a spoken answer against these, and tells you which one you named.
Where it is recorded
| United States | 33,891 |
|---|---|
| Alaska | 21,198 |
| Oregon | 2,788 |
| California | 2,590 |
| Russia | 2,064 |
| Utah | 1,467 |
| Colorado | 1,457 |
| Ukraine | 1,080 |
| Austria | 855 |
| Germany | 825 |
Counts show where people looked, not only where it lives.
Traits
Group and habits
- Medicinal useListed as having medicinal use by a harvested source. This is not medical advice.Kew World Checklist of Useful Plant Species
- Material useListed as being used for materials such as wood, fiber, resin, gum, or oil.Kew World Checklist of Useful Plant Species
- Restoration or landscaping useListed as being used for restoration, landscaping, ornamental planting, erosion control, soil improvement, shade, windbreaks, pollution indicators, or wastewater purification.Kew World Checklist of Useful Plant Species
- Forb or herb growth formListed by a harvested source as having a forb or herbaceous growth form.USDA PLANTS Characteristics
- Biennial plantListed by a harvested source as having a biennial life duration.USDA PLANTS Characteristics
- Pollinator-associated plantDescends from a plant lineage commonly associated with pollinators.Inferred from its group
Edibility, toxicity and medicinal traits are records from datasets, not advice. Never eat, handle or use a wild species on the strength of an app.
Classification
| Kingdom | Plants · Plantae |
|---|---|
| Phylum | Vascular Plants · Tracheophyta |
| Class | Dicots · Magnoliopsida |
| Order | Sunflowers, Bellflowers, Fanflowers, and Allies · Asterales |
| Family | Sunflowers, Daisies, Asters, and Allies · Asteraceae |
| Genus | cotton thistles · Onopordum |
Study it in a deck
Or build your own from the species near you.
Sources
- Names, taxonomy and observation counts: www.inaturalist.org
- Photos and recordings: the creator and source are on each one.
- Traits: Kew World Checklist of Useful Plant Species (CC BY 4.0)
- Traits: USDA PLANTS Characteristics (U.S. Government work / public domain)
- How much to rely on each source
Remember the name next time.
Practise cotton thistle with real photos from different observers. Say the name out loud, and it comes back just before you would forget it.