Carduus nutans is a native plant of Eurasia. It is an introduced species, and often a noxious weed, in other regions and on other continents. The plant grows from sea level to an elevation of about. It is found in neutral to acidic soils. It typically grows in meadows and grasslands, in heavily grazed land in areas such as pastures, and on open disturbed soil such as roadsides and building sites. It spreads rapidly in areas subjected to frequent natural disturbance events such as landslides and flooding, but does not grow well in excessively wet, dry, or shady conditions.
Description
Carduus nutans is usually a biennial, requiring 2 years to complete a reproductive cycle. However, it may germinate and flower in a single year in warmer climates. Seedlings may emerge at any time from spring to late summer and develop a rosette. Plants overwinter in the rosette stage, sending up a multi-branched flowering stem in mid spring of their second year. Mature plants range in height from tall and have multi-branched stems. Musk thistle has sharply spiny stems and leaves. The stem is cottony/hairy. The plants develop a rosette, with large leaves long. The leaves are dark green, coarsely bipinnately lobed, with a smooth, waxy surface and sharp yellow-brown to whitish spines at the tips of the lobes.They are more or less hairy on top, and wooly on the veins below.
Flowers
The plant bears showy red-purple flowers. The large globose flower heads, containing hundreds of tiny individual flowers, are 3–5 cm diameter and occur at the tips of stems. The flower heads commonly droop to a 90° to 120° angle from the stem when mature, hence its alternate name of "Nodding thistle". Each plant may produce thousands of straw-colored seeds adorned with plume-like bristles. They are 4 to 6 cm across, with purple-red bracts. The number of flowerheads per plant is site-dependent and ranges from about 20-50 on good sites and 1-20 on poor sites. Flowering occurs from late spring to late summer, and seed dissemination occurs approximately one month after the flowers form. A single flower head may produce 1,200 seeds and a single plant up to 120,000 seeds, which are wind dispersed. The seeds may remain viable in the soil for over ten years, making it a difficult plant to control.
