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Synonym: Cirsium tracyiCirsium undulatum variety tracyi.  (Thistle)
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)

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.)

Synonym: Cirsium tracyiCirsium undulatum variety tracyi.  (Thistle)
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)

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

Synonym: Cirsium tracyiCirsium undulatum variety tracyi.  (Thistle)
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)

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

The wide spreading basal rosette of early leaves is typical of a number of plants and very typical of Thistles.

Synonym: Cirsium tracyiCirsium undulatum variety tracyi.  (Thistle)
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)

Little Taylor Creek Trail, July 28, 2005.
The drying and dried seed heads are as prickly as the leaves.