Sonchus

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Asteraceae

• Scientific Name

  Sonchus

• Description

  Genus Description - Fls all ligulate and perfect, yellow, few to more often numerous (80+ in all our spp.); invol ovoid or campanulate, rarely narrower, its bracts generally imbricate, occasionally merely calyculate, often basally thickened in age; achenes flattened, 6–20-ribbed, merely narrowed at the tip, beakless, glabrous, often transversely rugulose; pappus of numerous white, capillary, often somewhat crisped bristles that tend to fall connected, and some stouter outer bristles that fall separately; lactiferous herbs with alternate or all basal, entire to dissected, mostly auriculate, often prickly-margined lvs, and solitary to usually several or many, medium-sized to rather large heads in an irregularly corymbose-paniculiform to subumbelliform infl. 50, Old World.

• Common Names

  sow thistle