Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

AMERICAN BURNWEED

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Erechtites hieracifolius (L. ) Raf. ex DC.

Leavenworth County, Kansas

Annual

Height: 12-80 inches

Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family

Flowering Period: August, September

Also Called:

Pilewort.

Stems:

1 or 2, erect, glabrous or floccose-tomentose.

Leaves:

Basal and cauline, alternate, basal usually withering before flowering, not prickly or spiny, upper gradually reduced; petioles absent or short; blades lanceolate to narrowly ovate, 2 to 8 inches long, 3/5 to 3 inches wide, base wedge-shaped to auricled, margins entire to serrate or weakly pinnately lobed.

Inflorescences:

Heads, 2 to 20(-40) in corymb-like arrays; involucres urn-shaped to obconic, .4 to .7 inch; calyculate bractlets 4 to 12; phyllaries usually 21 in 1 series, linear, .4 to .6 inch, tips green, acuminate.

Flowers:

Ray florets 0; peripheral florets pistillate; corolla white to yellowish white, narrowly tubular 4-5-lobed, 3 outer teeth much longer than 2 inner; disk florets 3 to 100, bisexual, fertile; corolla whitish to yellowish white.

Fruits:

Achenes cylindric or tapering slightly to base, 5-angled, 10 to 20-ribbed, 1/10 to 1/8 inch, glabrous or finely pubescent between the nerves; pappus of 60 to 120 white, obscurely barbellate bristles 2/5 to 1/2 inch long.

Habitat:

Moist woods and thickets, prairie ravines, gardens and flower beds, moist disturbed sites

Distribution:

East 1/3 of Kansas, more common in southeast

Origin:

Native

Comments:

Erechtites, is an ancient name for a species of Senecio.

American burnweed