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Photographer: Paul Drobot
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Family Asteraceae
Sonchus asper (L.) Hill
prickly sow-thistle, spiny sow-thistle
Sonchus: the Greek name for sowthistle
asper: rough
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| Status: | Introduced - naturalized |
| Plant: | erect, annual, 4"-80" tall, mostly hairless forb with milky juice |
| Flower: | head 1/2"-1" wide with pale yellow ray flowers; inflorescence of several heads in open, branched clusters; blooms July-Oct. |
| Fruit: | dry, unwrinkled seed faintly 3-5 ribbed on each side |
| Leaf: | alternate, often not lobed, heart-shaped bases clasping and curving around the stem, toothed to pinnately-divided, edges quite prickly, upper leaves smaller and less divided |
| Habitat: | disturbed sites |
| Notes: | similar to S. oleraceus but more prickly and with an unwrinked seed |
| (Glossary) |
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