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Cirsium edule; photograph (c) Lee Cain, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Lee Cain, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-06

Cirsium edule Nutt.

Indian thistle; Edible thistle; Hall's thistle; Cardoon

Asteraceae · Alaska, British Columbia +2

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Cirsium edule, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCirsium edule, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCirsium edule, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCirsium edule, photograph (c) John Brew, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cirsium edule, photograph (c) armeria, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cirsium edule, photograph (c) armeria, some rights reserved (CC BY) 88 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-20.4°C
Record low -33.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
19°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,361mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
7–42DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes October to March, with nights below freezing; no growing season read. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Cirsium edule, the edible thistle or Indian thistle, is a species of thistle in the genus Cirsium, native to western North America from southeastern Alaska south through British Columbia to Washington and Oregon, and locally inland to Idaho. It is a larval host to the mylitta crescent and the painted lady.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cirsium edule", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a rainy season and no growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,786 mm of 2,340 mm) falls in October to March, the cooler part of the year, but the mean nightly low is below freezing in February, March, April, December and January, so the rule reads no growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

Rain

2,340 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,786 mm of it October to March. Wettest month November at 380 mm, driest month July at 47 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,036 mm to 3,521 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,361 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,340 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 42 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 5, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -20.4 °C, the absolute minimum -33.7 °C, 8,736 frost nights in 44 years, 198.5 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 26.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -6.6 °C in December (across the grid cells of the range -11.9 °C to 3.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 19.3 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -20.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +515 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Cirsium edule through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 19 °C; coldest month December, mean nightly low -6.6 °C; 2,340 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-40°-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost26.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-33.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 7–42RH 58–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 531 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C0 / -5–91 / -3–103 / 0–116 / 3–1211 / 7–1515 / 12–1919 / 16–2319 / 16–2316 / 13–209 / 6–152 / -2–11-1 / -6–8
Night °C-6 / -11–4-6 / -10–4-4 / -8–5-3 / -6–61 / -3–95 / 1–118 / 5–128 / 5–135 / 2–121 / -4–9-4 / -9–6-7 / -12–4
Rain mm345 / 140–506246 / 89–353235 / 77–347164 / 56–250115 / 58–17692 / 53–14647 / 23–8448 / 23–8788 / 43–154220 / 97–364380 / 149–565360 / 144–498
DLI8 / 6–914 / 12–1621 / 19–2531 / 28–3537 / 34–4139 / 36–4342 / 39–4637 / 34–4028 / 25–3116 / 13–199 / 7–107 / 5–8
RH %65 / 62–6862 / 60–6563 / 60–6562 / 58–6461 / 57–6461 / 57–6559 / 53–6658 / 53–6658 / 54–6462 / 59–6566 / 63–6964 / 61–68
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 531 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1302 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 821:1162 (48.925, -121.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -33.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -20.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 26.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 531 distinct grid cells holding 1302 of the 1303 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 821:1162 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 49.00_-121.875, lapse-corrected +515 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1192 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlaska, British Columbia, Oregon, Washington · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker47.527, -121.353 · in the densest population, 1367 records (92% of those in range)
Kew's description“temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1479 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1302 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1303 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 434 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4 km away. 15 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 176 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1479 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Cirsium edule, photograph 1did not loadCirsium edule, photograph 2did not loadCirsium edule, photograph 3did not loadCirsium edule, photograph 4did not loadCirsium edule, photograph 5did not loadCirsium edule, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) John Brew, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) armeria, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Sorbus sitchensis Sorbus sitchensis Western mountain-ash Photo: CC0, author not statedSedum divergens Sedum divergens Spreading stonecrop Photo: CC BY, tmaxSorbus occidentalis Sorbus occidentalis Rosaceae Photo: CC BY, Peter AbrahamsenDelphinium glareosum Delphinium glareosum Rockslide larkspur Photo: CC BY, John A HaskinsVaccinium deliciosum Vaccinium deliciosum Cascade bilberry Photo: CC0, author not statedPenstemon davidsonii Penstemon davidsonii Davidson's penstemon Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Cirsium 56 in the reference

Cirsium acaulon Cirsium acaulon Dwarf Thistle Photo: CC BY, Franck CabotCirsium alsophilum Cirsium alsophilum Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Tony KMCirsium altissimum Cirsium altissimum Roadside thistle Photo: CC BY, hr_dragonflyCirsium arisanense Cirsium arisanense Alishan thistle Photo: CC BY, Rick ChouCirsium arizonicum Cirsium arizonicum Arizona thistle Photo: CC BY, Parker James LloydCirsium arvense Cirsium arvense Creeping thistle Photo: CC BY, Arthur WhitingCirsium brevicaule Cirsium brevicaule Okinawa Thistle Photo: CC0, author not statedCirsium brevistylum Cirsium brevistylum Clustered thistle Photo: CC0, author not statedCirsium canum Cirsium canum Queen Anne's thistle Photo: CC BY, Анна МитрошенковаCirsium carniolicum Cirsium carniolicum Asteraceae Photo: CC0, author not statedCirsium carolinianum Cirsium carolinianum Soft thistle Photo: CC BY, Nathan AaronCirsium cymosum Cirsium cymosum Peregrine thistle Photo: CC0, author not stated all 57 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Carduus edulis; Carduus hallii; Cirsium hallii; Cnicus edulis; Cnicus hallii. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
Nutt.
Native to
Alaska, British Columbia, Oregon +1
Wild records
1479 in range · 434 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 7 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 5 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 49.00_-121.875, lapse-corrected +515 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 39 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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