Plants annual, not cespitose, 3-10 dm; roots fibrous. Stems erect, pilose-strigose. Leaves: petiole 0.5-2 cm; blade green, oblong to ovate, 2-10 × 0.5-5 cm, apex acute, villous. Inflorescences: heads white, yellow, red, or purple, globose, 20-28 mm diam.; bractlets crested along keel. Flowers: tube densely lanate; perianth lobes white to pink, lance-subulate, 4.4-5.2 mm, chartaceous, apex acuminate. Utricles oblong, 2 mm, apex acute. Seeds 1.5 mm.

Flowering summer-fall. Waste grounds; 10-500 m; introduced; La., N.J., N.Y., Pa., S.C., Tex., Va.; native of s Asia; widely escaped from cultivation.

A branching annual to 1 m, with terminal, colored heads 2-2.5 cm thick, and with very woolly fls, occasionally escapes from cult.

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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