Chondrilla juncea Ledeb.
Family: Asteraceae
Rush Skeltonweed
Chondrilla juncea image

Stems with retrorse, coarse, bristly hairs on basal 10-15 cm, distally glabrous. Leaves: basal withered before flowering, blades 5-13 × 1.5-3 cm. Involucres 9-12 mm. Phyllaries tomentose. Cypselae: bodies 3-4 mm, beaks 5-6 mm, ribs with antrorse tubercles distally; pappi 5-6 mm. 2n = 15.

Flowering Jul-Oct. Roadsides, rangelands, grain fields, waste places and other disturbed ground; 0-600 m; introduced; B.C., Ont.; Calif., Del., D.C., Ga., Idaho, Ill., Md., Mich., Mont., N.J., Oreg., Pa., Va., Wash., W.Va.; Eurasia; Africa; Australia.

Branching, rush-like, taprooted perennial with runcinate- pinnatifid, often deciduous basal lvs 5-13 נ1.5-3.5 cm and reduced linear cauline lvs 2-10 cm נ1-8 mm, the stem 3-15 dm, strongly spreading-hispid near the base, the invols white-tomentose, the herbage otherwise glabrous; heads scattered along the branches, commonly with 9-12 fls; invol 9-12 mm, with ca 8 principal bracts; body of the achene 3 mm, muricate above and bearing a circle of scales at the base of the long, slender beak; 2n=15, 30. Roadsides, fields, and waste places; native of Eurasia, intr. in our range from N.Y. to Va., W.Va. and Mich. July-Sept.

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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