Foothills, montane. Woodlands, openings. Spring.
Head of Hovenweep Canyon, June 8, 2001.

Cirsium tracyi is a native and very common Thistle, especially in low, semi-desert, dry, open areas.  It has numerous puffy white (sometimes pink-to-lavender purple) flowers which at first appear to be dried seed heads.

This plant was first collected for science by Charles Baker and Samuel Tracy near Mancos, Colorado in 1898 and was at first named Cardus tracyi by Per Axel Rydberg in 1905 and then renamed Cirsium tracyi by Franz Petrak (1886-1973) in 1917.  Several plant authorities, including the USDA Plant Database and Synthesis of the North American Flora now consider Cirsium Tracyi to be a variety of Cirsium undulatum.  It was so designated by Stanley Welsh (of Utah Flora fame) in 1983.  Tracy was a late nineteenth/early twentieth century plant collector. (More biographical information.)

Foothills. Woodlands, openings. Spring.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, June 12, 2005.

Foothills. Woodlands, openings. Spring.
Lone Mesa State Park, August 5, 2008.