General: Annual herb from a short taproot; stems erect, solitary, few-branched above, glabrous, hollow, exuding milky juice when broken, 0.1-1 m tall.
Leaves: Basal leaves lacking; stem leaves alternate, prickly- margined, lowermost with stalks but not so clearly divided (as in S. oleraceus) into blade and stalk, more or less egg-shaped, uppermost deeply pinnately cut to egg-shaped and lobeless with rounded, clasping flanges at the base, 6-30 cm long, 1-15 cm wide.
Flowers: Heads with strap-shaped flowers, several on sometimes glandular stalks in an open, flat-topped inflorescence, relatively small, commonly 1.5-2.5 cm wide in flower; involucres 9-14 mm tall; involucral bracts lanceolate, tapering to a slender tip at the apex, glabrous except for some spreading, gland-tipped hairs; ray flowers yellow.
Fruits: Achenes 2.5-3 mm long, with 3 or rarely 4-5 conspicuous longitudinal ribs on each face, not wrinkled; pappus of white hairlike bristles.
Mesic to dry roadsides, disturbed areas and gardens in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; frequent in all but N regions of BC; introduced from Europe.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
