Composite Family
Thistle, Circium undulatum, SPRENG.
Flower heads, 1½ to 2 inches broad, are solitary at the ends of stems and branches, and made up of numerous (100 or more) rose-colored, tubular florets fluffing out widely at their tops and grouped tightly together at their bases into an involucre made of many little, overlapping green bracts. Plant is about 3 feet tall with gray-green deeply cut leaves; stem and leaf ribs armed with prickles. Grows on plains, extending into foothills. Blooms May-September.
Thistles of some sort are found in all parts of Colorado. Above timberline they take on grotesque shapes. In one, high-altitude thistle, Circium hookerianum, the whole woolly top of the plant, formed of compressed leaves and inconspicuous flower heads, bends over to resemble the head and neck of some shaggy animal. In our sub-alpine hay meadows a different species, Circium drummondii, may spread flat on the ground with no main stem and keep its flower heads so low that the mowing machine goes right over it catching only tops of a few leaves. On the plains are other species with shaving-brush-like flower heads. In spite of the prickles on their leaves and stems, horses nip off the flower heads and eat them with relish. Donkeys and mules seem to like them even better.
CLASSIFICATION OF PLANTS
All plants are related to each other in the sense that every one of them is descended from a common primitive uni-cellular life form which came into existence on this planet millions of years ago. As the remote progeny of that ancestral cell, or group of cells, became scattered over the earth and faced diverse conditions, which in turn changed with the ages, these millions of related organisms exhibited profound changes such that the differences in form, size and structure have become more noticeable than are the badges of common inheritance. This is the process called Evolution. Changes are established so slowly, however, that the immediate descendants of any particular plant, or the offspring from cross-pollination within a closely related group, will continue for many generations to be substantially identical in structure with the parents. As long as substantial identity in structure exists, all of these individual plants form a single “species.” As these species are discovered, botanists give each of them a Latin name. Within Colorado over 2000 such separate species of flowering plants are known. Minute variations such as color of petals or degree of hairiness of leaf or stem are treated as “varieties” within the species.
Many thousands of these substantially identical plants may be found scattered over parts of a state, or over several states, or even throughout a life zone area comprising parts of several continents. Within the life zone favorable to them, the only geographical limits seem to be those affecting distribution of live seed.
In the search for plants, many different species are found, either in the same or more often in different localities, in which the resemblances are close; in fact many parts are almost identical, but persistent differences are also present. A common ancestor several hundred or several thousand years back may have existed, but evolutionary changes have brought noticeable differences in the respective descendant groups. If the changes are not too great, especially if the mechanisms of reproduction have not been so greatly changed as to make cross-pollination totally impossible between plants of the several species, these related species, wherever they may have been found, are said to comprise a “genus.” To this, also, a Latin name is given. Lillium, for example, is the generic name of all true lilies everywhere; umbellatum, however, is the specific name of the group to which our Colorado mountain lily belongs; and “Lillium umbellatum” is the full name of the plant shown on [page 10].
Still greater differences in plant and flower structure are found, coupled, however, with strong resemblances in significant parts of the structure. This has led to grouping a considerable number of genera together into a “family.” Latin names also are given to the families. For these names there are, in most cases, well established English equivalents which we have used here without repeating the more technical family name. Within each family all genera and each species of every genus will exhibit strong resemblances in the mechanism of seed production, and the general pattern of the organs of reproduction will be recognizably similar. For example, all species in the rose family (with very few exceptions) have numerous stamens arranged in whorls; they also have a calyx formed of five sepals joined together at the base.
Other groupings, such as “Orders” comprised of several families, or “tribes” composed of several genera within a family, are used by botanists, but for the purposes of this booklet we have used only the names of families, genera and species.