Perennial with long, slender tubers. Stems 1-6, 7-35 cm, simple, with few to numerous, rigid, simple eglandular or long-stalked 2- to 3-fid hairs; bracts 0-2. Leaves 20-140 x 5-25 mm, obovate to oblanceolate-oblong, more or less obtuse, retrorse-dentate to runcinate-pinnatifid, narrowed to a sometimes dentate petiole, with numerous rigid, long-stalked 2- to 3-fid hairs. Capitulum solitary. Involucre 9-15 x 6-10 mm; bracts oblong, narrowed to an obtuse apex, glabrous or with rigid, long-stalked 2-fid hairs often confined to a median line. Ligules yellow, the outer with a greenish stripe on the outer face. Stigmas yellow or discoloured. Achenes 3-7 mm, transversely rugose or muricate, of 2 kinds; outer curved, sometimes with a short beak and with a pappus of hairs not more than 0.5 mm; inner usually straight, beaked, the pappus of 2 rows of plumose hairs.
Rosette herb, perennial, 15-30-(50) cm high, with tuberous roots. Flowering stems scapelike, erect, unbranched with a single head. Rosette leaves narrowly obovate, (3.0)-6.0-30.0 cm long, 1.0-4.0 cm wide, entire or runcinate, entire or dentate, obtuse or acute, petiole-like attenuate, hispidulous with 2-3 branched bristles. Cauline leaves absent. Heads nodding before anthesis. Involucre at flowering campanulate, 10.0-18.0 mm long, at flowering 8.0-10.0 mm in diameter, hispidulous or subglabrous; involucral bracts linear-oblong or variable, obtuse or subacute, membranaceous; outer involucral bracts 3.0-4.0 mm long, c. 1.3 mm wide; inner involucral bracts up to 18.0 mm long, 1.0-1.5 mm wide. Corolla ligulate, yellow; tube 6.0-7.0 mm long, pilose at apex; ligule 10.0-12.0 mm long, 2.0-3.0 mm wide, often oliv green externally. Anthertube yellowish, c. 4.0 mm long. Style c. 10.0 mm long; branches 1.0-1.5 mm long, style branches yellow. Achenes dimorphic; outer achenes cylindric-fusiform, partly enveloped by the persistent inner involucral bracts, curved, 6.0-7.0 mm long, c. 1.0 mm wide, transversely wrinkled, with longitudinal ribs, truncate or with a filiform beak, with pappus of lacerate, yellowish scales about 0.8 mm long; inner achenes narrowly fusiform, slightly curved, c. 8.0 mm long, c. 0.8 mm wide, transversely muricate, brown, with longitudinal ribs, with a filiform beak, with pappus. Pappus dimorphic, white to yellowish; outer pappus hairs c. 3.0 mm, barbellate; inner pappus hairs 6.0-7.0 mm, plumose, somewhat dilated into a scaly base
This plant is useful.
How to get rid of:
everal references note that it can grow to over 2 feet in height; one may presume the flower stems are fairly heavily branched, but where we've encountered it, it's been little more than 8 inches tall and probably subject to repeated mowings.
