Senecio vulgaris |
Senecio spartioides |
|
---|---|---|
common groundsel, old man in the spring |
||
Habit | Simple or strongly-branched, tap-rooted annual, 1-4 dm. tall. | |
Leaves | Leafy throughout, the leaves coarsely and irregularly toothed to pinnatifid, 2-10 cm. long and 5-45 mm. wide, the lower tapering to a petiole, the upper sessile and clasping. |
|
Flowers | Heads many, strictly rayless, the flowers all tubular and perfect; disk usually 5-10 mm. wide; involucre 5-8 mm. high, the princeple bracts about 21, the bracteoles short but well-developed, black tipped; pappus copious. |
|
Senecio vulgaris |
Senecio spartioides |
|
Identification notes | Separate from the only other annual Senecio in our area by the number of involucre bracts (S. vulgaris has about 21, S. sylvaticus,13), the bracteoles (only S. vulgarisÆ are black-tipped) and the aroma (only S. sylvaticus is malodorous). | |
Flowering time | February-September | |
Habitat | Roadsides, waste ground, lawns, and other disturbed, open sites. | |
Distribution | Occurring on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; Alaska to California, east across most of North America to the Atlantic Coast.
|
|
Origin | Introduced from Europe | |
Conservation status | Not of concern | |
Sibling taxa | ||
Web links |
|