Cirsium chokaiense

Japanese name: チョウカイアザミ （鳥海薊）
Scientific name: Cirsium chokaiense

[Overview]
A perennial growing in alpine grasslands.
A thistle endemic to Mt. Chokai.
The stem is thick and ascending, 40–150 cm tall, and branches several times in the upper part.
The stem has brown, multicellular, curly hairs.
There are basal leaves and alternate stem leaves; the basal leaves remain even at flowering time.
The basal leaves are elliptic, 20–40 cm long, pinnately divided into 5–7 pairs of lobes, each lobe tipped with a sharp spine, and thick in texture.
Large, dark reddish-purple flower heads with a strong red tint are borne at the stem tip, either solitary or several together in corymbs, and face downward.
The narrow tubular part of the floret is clearly longer than the wide tubular part.
The involucre is bell-shaped to broadly bell-shaped, about 1.5–2 cm wide, deep purple to blackish purple, with the bracts pressed closely together in 6 rows.
The involucre has glands and is markedly sticky.
The fruit is an achene with a pappus.

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