Cobweb Thistle

Did you know

• Dense white cobweb-like hairs covering the plant give it a ghostly silver appearance that distinguishes it from all other thistles.
• It is endemic to California and Baja California, growing in coastal scrub, chaparral, and rocky hillside habitats.
• Painted lady butterflies depend heavily on this thistle as a larval host plant during their mass migrations through California.
• The brilliant red-to-crimson flower heads are among the most vivid of all native California thistles, attracting hummingbirds and bumblebees.
• It is a monocarpic plant — it spends its first year growing as a rosette and then blooms, sets seed, and dies in its second year.

Color meanings

Uses

• wildlife habitat
• ornamental
• native plant restoration