Cirsium turneri Warnock

Cirsium turneri is known from the mountains of the Big Bend area of trans-Pecos Texas and adjacent areas of northern Mexico.

Perennials 15–45 cm; stout, branched caudices. Stems 5–30+, horizontal or hanging from cliff sides, thinly appressed gray-tomentose and villous with septate trichomes; branches 0–few. distal, ascending. Leaves: blades oblong-elliptic to oblanceolate, 5–30 × 1–5 cm, shallowly to deeply pinnatifid, lobes spreading, triangular, coarsely dentate or lobed, obtuse to acute, main spines slender, 4–10 mm, abaxial faces green or gray-tomentose, villous with septate trichomes along midveins, ± glabrate, adaxial green and glabrous or thinly tomentose, ± glabrate; basal often present at flowering, spiny winged-petiolate; principal cauline sessile, gradually reduced distally; distal oblong, bases ± clasping, usually less deeply lobed and often spinier than proximal. Heads 1–6+, borne singly or in condensed corymbiform arrays. Peduncles 0–1 cm. Involucres cylindric to narrowly campanulate, 3.5–4.5 × 1.5–2 cm, loosely arachnoid, glabrate, finely short-ciliate. Phyllaries in 5–6 series, imbricate, linear-lanceolate (outer) to linear (inner), entire, abaxial faces without glutinous ridge, apices red to reddish purple, stiffly ascending, long-acuminate, spines straight, 1–10 mm, ± flattened; apices of inner stramineous to red, straight or flexuous. Corollas red to reddish purple, 26–27 mm, tubes 3.5–5 mm, throats 7.5–9.5 mm, lobes 12–14 mm; style tips ca. 3 mm. Cypselae stramineous, 5–6 mm, apical collars not differentiated; pappi 20–25 mm.

Cirsium turneri is a North American species of plants in the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae. Common names include cliff thistle. The species grows in crevices in limestone cliffs in northern Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila) and western Texas (Brewster, Terrell, Val Verde Counties).

Cirsium turneri is a perennial herb up to 45 cm (18 inches) tall. Leaves have small, narrow spines along the edges. Flower heads are sometimes produced one at a time, sometimes in small groups, each head with red or reddish-purple disc florets but no ray florets.

Cirsium turneri là một loài thực vật có hoa trong họ Cúc. Loài này được Warnock mô tả khoa học đầu tiên năm 1960.