Distribution: Widely distributed on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; Alaska to California, east across North America to the Atlantic Coast.

Habitat: Roadsides, fields, meadows, pastures, prairies, grasslands, wastelots, and other disturbed areas at low to middle elevations.

Flowers: May-October

Origin: Introduced from Eurasia

Growth Duration: Perennial

Conservation Status: Not of concern

Pollination: Bumblebees, bees, butterflies, beetles, wasps, hummingbirds

Dioecious, mostly glabrous perennial from deep rhizomes, 3-15 dm. tall.

Leaves lanceolate or oblong, up to 2 dm. long, reduced upward, pinnatifid or occasionally merely lobed or toothed, weakly spiny.

Heads several; involucres 1-2 cm. high, the outer bracts tipped with weak, short spines; pappus of the pistillate heads longer than the corollas, that of the staminate heads shorter than the corollas; flowers pink-purple or occasionally white.

Achenes glabrous, about 4 mm. long.