Home
Annual herb 10-100 cm tall; stems often distally purplish, erect, simple or branched, laxly pubescent with spreading flagelliform and ascending T-shaped hairs.. Leaves opposite in lower part of plant, alternate distally, subsessile, (broadly) elliptic, 0.6-13 cm long, 0.2-5.5 cm wide, base cuneate to attenuate, margins coarsely serrate or sinuate-serrate, apex acuminate, thinly finely strigose above and mainly on veins beneath.. Capitula rather congested in upper axillary and terminal compound corymbiform cymes; stalks of individual capitula 1-10 mm long; involucres campanulate or ovoid, 3-8 mm long, 3-6 mm in diameter at flowering time; phyllaries narrowly ovate, more or less attenuate, acute, long-pubescent, fimbriate-pectinate on purplish membranous margins, the inner 4.5-9 mm long.. Corolla pale mauve or purple, 4-10 mm long, with scattered glands, lobes ± 2.8 mm long.. Achenes pale brown, 4-5-ribbed, 1.2-1.5 mm long; pappus of few caducous bristles 1-3 mm long.. Fig. 32/6-7, p. 140.
Leaves opposite, the uppermost alternate; petioles to c. 2 mm. long; lamina mostly 3–13 x 1–5.5 cm., elliptic, apex subacute, base cuneate, margin serrate to coarsely serrate-dentate the teeth usually callose-tipped, both surfaces finely pilose-strigose often sparsely so or glabrescent, gland-dotted, the hairs shortly-stalked flagelliform.
Phyllaries numerous, scarious with subhyaline margins, sparsely hispid to glabrescent, finely ciliate-pectinate on the margins towards the apex, often purple-tinged in the upper half, the outer from c. 1.5 mm. long, the inner to c. 8 mm. long, ovate to narrowly lanceolate, ± tapering acuminate to a short pungent or bristle tip.
Achenes pale-brown, 1.2–1.5 mm. long, narrowly obovoid-oblong, with 4–5 low broad ribs, and narrower dark-brown gland-filled grooves in between, rounded above with a shallow apical depression; pappus of a few very caducous, barbellate setae 1–3 mm. long.
Capitula small, in few to numerous clusters of 3–12-capitulate lax corymbiform cymes; capitula stalks 1–10 mm. long; synflorescence branches subtended by leaves or leaf-like bracts.
Corollas mauve or purplish, rarely whitish, mostly 4–10 mm. long, tubular, widening gradually upwards, usually glabrous except for scattered glands.
Stems simple to widely branched above, leafy, hispid; the indumentum a mixture of appressed T-shaped hairs with larger ± patent flagelliform hairs.
Involucres 3–8 x 4–10 mm., campanulate.
An erect annual herb, 0.1–1.2 m. tall.
