Cobweb Thistle (Cirsium occidentale) is a beautiful non-weedy thistle that forms a rosette of gray woolly and spiny leaves the first year and flowers in summer of the second year with tall spikes of showy flowers. These may be white to blood red to shades of purple. The unopened flower heads are laced, often quite heavily, in fibers resembling cobwebs.
This fast-growing perennial may remain short, at 2 feet,or tower to 9 feet. t likes sunny areas with good drainage and little irrigation. It is deer resistant and attracts bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Butterflies such as the painted lady and the Mylitta crescent depend on cobweb thistle as a larval food source.