Biology:Cirsium palustre
| Cirsium palustre | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Asterales |
| Family: | Asteraceae |
| Genus: | Cirsium |
| Species: | C. palustre
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| Binomial name | |
| Cirsium palustre (L.) Scop.
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| Synonyms[1] | |
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Synonymy
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Cirsium palustre, the marsh thistle[2] or European swamp thistle, is a herbaceous biennial (or often perennial) flowering plant in the family Asteraceae.[3][4]
Cirsium palustre is a tall thistle which reaches up to 2 metres (7 ft) in height. The strong stems have few branches and are covered in small spines. In its first year the plant grows as a dense rosette, at first with narrow, entire leaves with spiny, dark purple edges; later, larger leaves are lobed. In the subsequent years the plant grows a tall, straight stem, the tip of which branches repeatedly, bearing a candelabra of dark purple flowers, 10–20 millimetres (0.4–0.8 in) with purple-tipped bracts. In the northern hemisphere these are produced from June to September. The flowers are occasionally white, in which case the purple edges to the leaves are absent.[5]
The plant provides a great deal of nectar for pollinators. It was rated first out of the top 10 for most nectar production (nectar per unit cover per year) in a UK plants survey conducted by the AgriLand project which is supported by the UK Insect Pollinators Initiative.[6]
It is native to Europe where it is particularly common on damp ground such as marshes, wet fields, moorland and beside streams. In Canada and the northern United States , it is an introduced species that has become invasive. It grows in dense thickets that can crowd out slower growing native plants.[7][5][8]
Ecology
Cirsium palustre is broadly distributed throughout much of Europe and eastward to central Asia. This thistle's occurrence is linked to the spread of human agriculture from the mid-Holocene era or before.[9] It is a constant plant of several fen-meadow plant associations, including the Juncus subnodulosus-Cirsium palustre fen-meadow.[9] The flowers are visited by a wide variety of insects, featuring a generalised pollination syndrome.[10]
References
- ↑ The Plant List, Cirsium palustre (L.) Coss. ex Scop.
- ↑ (xls) BSBI List 2007, Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland, https://bsbi.org/download/3542/, retrieved 2014-10-17
- ↑ J. S. Rodwell. 1998. British Plant Communities, p. 227
- ↑ Altervista Flora Italiana, Cardo di palude, Sumpf-Kratzdistel, kärrtistel, Cirsium palustre (L.) Scop. includes photos and European distribution map
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Flora of North America, European swamp or marsh thistle, cirse ou chardon des marais, Cirsium palustre (Linnaeus) Scopoli
- ↑ "Which flowers are the best source of nectar?". Conservation Grade. 2014-10-15. http://www.conservationgrade.org/2014/10/which_flowers_best_source_nectar/. Retrieved 2017-10-18.
- ↑ "Marsh Plume Thistle, Aliens Among Us.". http://alienspecies.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/eng/species/marsh-plume-thistle.
- ↑ Biota of North America Program 22014 county distribution map
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 C. Michael Hogan. 2009. Marsh Thistle: Cirsium palustre, GlobalTwitcher.com, ed. N. Strömberg
- ↑ Van Der Kooi, C. J.; Pen, I.; Staal, M.; Stavenga, D. G.; Elzenga, J. T. M. (2015). "Competition for pollinators and intra-communal spectral dissimilarity of flowers". Plant Biology 18 (1): 56–62. doi:10.1111/plb.12328. PMID 25754608. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273158762.
External links
Wikidata ☰ Q659846 entry
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