Montane. Woodlands, openings. Summer.
Meadow below El Diente Peak, July 31, 2008.

Cirsium parryi is fairly common in moist mountain meadows of Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado.  It occurs singly or in scattered patches, grows to a very eye-catching three or four feet tall and is cobwebby hairy around the mature flower head.  Leaves are entire but, as in the plant pictured at left, leaf margins undulate.  

The plant was first named Cnicus parryi by Asa Gray in 1874 and then was renamed Cirsium parryi by Franz Petrak in 1911.  Charles Parry was one of the giants of 19th century botany and is known as the "King of Colorado Botany".  (More biographical information.)

Montane. Woodlands, openings. Summer.
Meadow below El Diente Peak, July 31, 2008.

Involucres (the mass of green phyllaries below the actual flower head) are cobwebby hairy.  The glistening hairs are beginning to lengthen in the uppermost very fresh flower.  Four flower buds surround the one open flower and they are still completely enclosed by the phyllaries.

Montane. Woodlands, openings. Summer.
Meadow below El Diente Peak, July 31, 2008.

Flowers are most often a yellow/white.  As is true for all Thistles, the flower is composed only of a mass of disk flowers; there are no ray flowers surrounding the disk.