cobweb thistle
A beautiful NATIVE and NON-WEEDY thistle. Forms a rosette of gray woolly and spiny leaves the first year. A BIENNIAL, flowering occurs the second year with tall spikes of showy maroon-red flowers with cobweb hairs on the bracts. A striking plant for sunny areas with good drainage and low to no irrigation. An excellent addition to the habitat garden where it attracts bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. Butterflies such as the painted lady and the mylitta crescent depend on cobweb thistle as a larval food source. Deer resistant.