Crowned saw-wort is a tall in the daisy family whose purplish-red flower heads look a lot like thistles, but the plant has no spines. It is native to a wide band of Eurasia, from Europe across Siberia to China, Korea, and Japan, and doesn't grow wild in the US.
Appearance
- Growth form
- The plants in Korea and Japan (a called insularis) are upright, about 1–4.5 ft (30–140 cm) tall, with grooved stems that branch near the top.
- Leaves
- Lower leaves are large and deeply cut into feather-like lobes with coarse teeth; leaves get smaller toward the top of the stem.
- Flowers
- Purplish-red heads about 1 1/4–1 1/2 in (3–4 cm) across sit upright at the branch tips, from late summer into fall.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Mountain grasslands in Korea and Japan
- Range
- Native across a wide band of Eurasia, from central and eastern Europe and the Caucasus through Siberia, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia to China, Korea, and Japan. It isn't found in the wild in North America.
Name and classification
- About the name
- Plants in Korea and Japan are treated as subsp. insularis; the typical subspecies (subsp. coronata) ranges from Europe to Siberia and China and has leaf lobes joined at the base and dark purplish bracts. The plant description here is for the Korea and Japan subspecies.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
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