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Cirsium occidentale
Cobweb thistle is a tall, stout, leafy biennial growing from 2' to 5' tall. The leaves are alternate, narrow-Lancelot, wavy-margined, pinnately-lobed and spinose, and up to 12" long. They are densely gray or whitish tomentose, especially beneath, and the upper leaves are reduced in size, sessile, and ± clasping or short-decurrent. The flowering heads are discoid, solitary on long leafy stems that are somewhat thicker than those of California thistle. The involucres are large, globose, to 2" in diameter, and densely cobwebby. The phyllaries are acicular, spreading to ascending, and interconnected by a webbing of fine, whitish tomentum. There are disk flowers only, purplish-red with corollas to 1-1/4". The fruit is a brownish achene about 1/4" long. Cobweb thistle inhabits sandy to grassy or brushy locations in coastal strand, coastal sage scrub and chaparral, mostly at fairly low elevations, from cismontane southern California to central California, and blooms from April to July.
Picture number 2 and 3 are Mt Diablo. You can see how the grass has turned Golden Brown in the scorching heat. in picture 3 you can see the Valley down below. That is where I live.
Spotted on Aug 3, 2012
Submitted on Aug 3, 2012
3 Comments
and you are right Antonio,these are all valley oaks. Mt Diablo has a predominantly oak habitat.
Wow,even so is a super gorgeous lands scape,second pic is like we have in the south(Alentejo province) the pic 3 is like the oak forest we have in the center interior bigest montain Serra da Estrela,incredble the similaritys.you have there a wild place ,not a "domesticate" place like i have here,so each of us have great places to walk and spott :) you are in the edge of wild nature,not so much diferent habitats,but very wild,i'am in place with many diferents habitats ,but almost completly domesticate :) you have to take more pictures arround you,the oak forest i see are awesome to show gorgeous backgrouwds while spotting creatures :)
I live down in the valley shown in pic 3. So you see Antonio,the landscape is pretty much uniform .It just takes one picture to describe my surroundings!!