This cache is part of the Smoky Valley Scenic Byway Wildflower Series.
Caches will be named after a Kansas Wildflower with information. Try to find them all!
For more information visit www.kswildflower.org
Suggested equipment: a log roller
| Height: 3-8 feet |
| Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family |
| Flowering Period: August, September |
|
| Also Called: |
|
Roadside thistle. |
| Stems: |
|
Erect, large, coarse, branched above, greenish, pubescent. |
| Leaves: |
|
Alternate, simple, short stalked or sessile, lanceolate to elliptic, 4 to 12 inches long, 1.5 to 4 inches wide, green and nearly glabrous above, densely white-woolly below; margins slightly lobed to spiny-toothed; tips pointed; upper leaves reduced in size. |
| Inflorescences: |
|
Solitary urn-shaped heads, 1.5 to 2 inches tall, terminal; bracts overlapping, tipped with small yellow spines. |
| Flowers: |
|
Ray florets absent; disk florets numerous, corollas light or dark rose to purplish. |
| Fruits: |
|
Achenes, brown, tipped with white or gray feather-like bristles, enclosing small seed. |
| Habitat: |
|
Open, moist to dry disturbed areas, roadsides, ditches, pastures, and thickets. |
| Distribution: |
|
East 2/3 of Kansas. |
| Uses: |
|
The Cherokee took an infusion of the leaves for neuralgia, a warm infusion of the roots as an aid for overeating, and used the plumose pappus bristles were to make blow dart tails. Songbirds will eat the seeds. |
| Comments: |
|
Butterflies are often attracted to tall thistle. |