Montane. Woodlands, openings. Summer.
Meadow below El Diente Trail, 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.
Horse Creek Trail, August 11, 2009.

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

Involucres (the mass of green phyllaries below the actual flower head) are cobwebby hairy.  In the top photograph at left, 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.  In the bottom photograph at left, you can see the straight, pointed tips of the phyllaries and the numerous, often cob-webby, white hairs.  Under magnification, the straight hairs are seen to be made up of a number of cells with cell walls clearly visible.

Montane. Woodlands, openings. Summer.
Meadow below El Diente Trail, 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.