Japanese name: ヨシノアザミ（吉野薊） Scientific name:Cirsium yoshinoi var. yoshinoi
[Overview]
A perennial 70–200 cm tall, found at forest edges and in grassland between woods in low mountains to mountain zones.
The stem is erect or slightly ascending and branches well from the middle, with the branches spreading at a wide angle.
There are basal leaves and stem leaves, and the basal leaves and the lower stem leaves have withered by flowering time.
The stem leaves are alternate; those in the middle are oblong to ovate, 20–30 cm long, pinnately divided into 2–7 pairs of lobes, with sharp spines at the tips of the lobes.
The stem tip bears several pale reddish-purple flower heads in a corymb or densely clustered, facing downward to obliquely downward.
The involucral bracts are in 8–9 rows and are recurved or spreading.
The involucral bracts have glands and are very sticky.
The fruit is an achene with a white pappus.
[Notes]
The Japanese name derives from Zensuke Yoshino, who collected the type specimen.
