Cirsium fontinale or Fountain thistle is an flowering perennial herb of the Asteraceae family, endemic to a limited region within northern and central California at an elevation not exceeding 750 meters. Occurrences appear limited to serpentine seeps and streams within portions of the San Francisco Bay Area and Outer South Coast Ranges. The Cirsium genus is commonly known as the "thistle" genus, Cirsium being the Greek word for thistle. There are three recognized varieties of this species: All the taxa within Cirsium fontinale have erect stems with leaves very strongly wavy margins. These tall plants may attain a height of 2.2 meters, but may exist in the form of only 0.5 meters. A given plant may have one or more stems, and the plants are sometimes short-lived, dying after flowering only once, even though the species is acknowledged to be perennial. Lower leaves are typically petioled or tapered, but mostly spiny-lobed; petioles are either spiny-lobed or toothed.