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Canada Thistle

Scientific Name

Cirsium arvense (L.) Scop (ITIS)

Common Name

Canada thistle, Californian thistle, Canadian thistle, creeping thistle, field thistle, corn thistle, perennial thistle, field thistle

Native To

Europe (Nuzzo 1997)

Date of U.S. Introduction

1600s (Nuzzo 1997)

Means of Introduction

Possibly accidental through farm seed shipments

Impact

Crowds out native species (Stachion and Zimdahl 1980); reduces crop and forage yields (Moore 1975)

Canada Thistle
Image use policy

Canada thistle, flowers in South Dakota

Credit

Photo by Chris Evans; University of Illinois

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Distribution / Maps / Survey Status

Videos

Selected Resources

The section below contains highly relevant resources for this species, organized by source.

Council or Task Force
Partnership
Federal Government
State and Local Government
Academic
Professional
Citations