Fibrous-rooted annual weed 0.1–2.5 m, glabrous or sometimes ± spreading-hairy throughout; lvs to 20 × 8 cm, sharply serrate with callous-tipped teeth, sometimes also irregularly lobed, the lower oblanceolate to obovate, tapering to a short petiolar base, the middle and upper more elliptic, lanceolate, or oblong, and, especially in robust specimens, often auriculate-clasping; heads in a flat-topped or elongate infl, or solitary in depauperate plants, turbinate-cylindric; invol 1–1.5 cm; pappus copious, bright white, eventually deciduous; 2n=40. Various habitats, including dry woods, marshes, and waste places; Nf. to Fla., w. to Nebr. and Tex., and intr. elsewhere. Aug., Sept. Most of our plants are var. hieraciifolia, with the denuded receptacle of old heads 5–8 mm wide, and the achenes 2–3 mm, with mostly 10–12 ribs. The var. megalocarpa (Fernald) Cronquist, a well marked ecotype of saline coastal marshes from Mass. to N.J., is somewhat fleshy, with slightly larger heads that are more conspicuously swollen at base (the denuded receptacle 9–12 mm wide), and with larger achenes, these 4–5 mm, 16–20-ribbed.
Home