General:
Perennial herb from a stout rhizome with fibrous roots; stems coarse, stiff, erect, 0.5-1.2 m tall, sometimes forked above, glandular and long-hairy.

Leaves:
Alternate, interruptedly odd-pinnately compound, the 5 to 11 main leaflets interspersed with much smaller ones; leaflets elliptic to egg-shaped, 2-10 cm long, coarsely saw-toothed, tapering to sharp tip, dark green and nearly smooth above, paler, soft-hairy on the veins and glandular-dotted beneath; stipules leaf-like, half-heart-shaped, to 2 cm long.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a long, slender, terminal, spike-like raceme of 10 to 50 small, short-stalked flowers, the racemes 10-40 cm long, the axis glandular and with long spreading hairs; corollas yellow, saucer-shaped, the petals 5, oblong, 2-4 mm long; calyces 5-lobed, the lobes broadly lanceolate, spreading then converging after flowering and forming a beak on the fruit, the hypanthium conic, grooved, hooked-prickly; ovaries superior; stamens 5 to 15.

Fruits:
Achenes, 2, seed-like, enclosed within the enlarged hardened hypanthium, the hypanthium grooved, glandular-dotted, with a crown of spreading, hooked bristles; entire bur-like fruit including the beak 6-8 mm long.

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.

Illustration Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Flower Colour:
Yellow

Blooming Period:
Summer

Fruit/Seed characteristics:
Colour: Brown
Present from Summer to Fall

Source:  The USDA