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Photographer: Paul Drobot
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Family Asteraceae
Sonchus oleraceus L.
common sow-thistle, field sow-thistle
Sonchus: the Greek name for sowthistle
oleraceus: of the vegetable garden
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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 yellow ray flowers; inflorescence of several heads in open, branched clusters; blooms July-Oct. |
| Fruit: | wrinkled, dry seed faintly 3-5 ribbed on each side |
| Leaf: | alternate, arrow-shaped bases clasping but not curving around the stem, toothed to pinnately-divided, mostly soft with edges only slightly prickly; lower leaves with deep lobes and often with a triangular end-segment; upper leaves smaller and less divided |
| Habitat: | disturbed sites |
| Notes: | similar to S. aspera but less prickly and with wrinkled seed |
| (Glossary) |
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