Remote-leaved thistle

Phyllaries imbricate or often subequal, narrowly oblong or linear, entire or sometimes weakly expanded and scarious. Corollas cream-colored, 20–28 mm, tubes 6–12 mm, throats 8–10 mm, lobes 4.5–6.5 mm.

Flowering late spring–summer (May–Aug). Fields, meadows, forest openings, open woods, brushy slopes; 40–1400 m; Calif., Oreg., Wash.

Variety remotifolium occurs primarily west of the Cascade Range in Washington and Oregon and on coastal-facing slopes in northwestern California. Intermediates with var. odontolepis are known through much of that range.