Perennials, 30-150 cm. Stems usually many, loosely gray-tomentose, branches ascending. Leaves loosely gray-tomentose or becoming glabrous, resin-gland-dotted; basal and proximal cauline petiolate, blades 10-15 cm, margins 1-2 times divided into linear or oblong segments; mid and distal cauline smaller, entire or dissected. Heads usually many in open cymiform arrays, pedunculate. Involucres ovoid, 10-13 mm. Phyllaries: bodies pale green or pink tinged, ovate (outer) to oblong (inner), with several prominent parallel veins, glabrous or finely tomentose, erect appendages decurrent on distal phyllary margins, dark brown or black, scarious, fringed with slender teeth. Florets 30-40; corollas pink to purple (white), those of sterile florets 15-25 mm, slender or somewhat enlarged, those of fertile florets 12-15 mm. Cypselae whitish or pale brown, 3-3.5 mm, finely hairy; pappi in 1-2 series, of many white, unequal, stiff bristles to 5 mm. 2n = 36.

Flowering summer (Jun-Sep). Roadsides, fields, open forests; 50-2800 m; introduced; Alta., B.C., N.B., N.S., Ont., Que.; Ala., Ariz., Ark., Calif., Colo., Conn., Del., Fla., Ga., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., La., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., Mont., Nebr., Nev., N.H., N.J., N.Mex., N.Y., N.C., N.Dak., Ohio, Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.C., S.Dak., Tenn., Utah, Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis., Wyo.; Europe.

Biennial or short-lived perennial 3-15 dm, sparsely scabrous-puberulent, and with a thin and loose evanescent tomentum; lvs pinnatifid with narrow lobes, or the reduced ones of the infl entire; heads ter minating the numerous branches, constricted upward in life; invol 10-13 mm, its bracts striate, the middle and outer ones with short, dark, pectinate tip; fls pink-purple, the marginal ones enlarged; pappus to 3 mm, or rarely none; 2n=18, 36. Fields, roadsides, and waste places; native of Europe, now commonly established in our range and westward. June-Oct. (C. rhenana; ? C. stoebe L., an older name)

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

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