Author
Carissa Lanoue
Common Name(s)
Common Sowthistle
Electronic links
Flora North America on-line species description: http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=200024557
Plants Database species profile: http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=SOOL
Ecology
Grows in disturbed soils in gardens, along roadsides, streams, etc.; from sea level to 2000 m
Family
Asteraceae - sunflower family
Flowering period
Mostly late winter or spring; year round where weather is favorable.
Flowers
Flowers ligulate, corollas yellow to orange; corolla tube and ligule about equal in length, ligule with 5 small lobes, anthers yellowish to brownish apically.
Fruit
Achenes (cypselae) reddish-brown, flattened; 2.5-3.5 mm long, 0.5-1.5 mm wide; not beaked; 2–4 ribs on each face, faces also transversely rugulose or tuberculate.
Heads/Capitula
Heads ligulate. Involucres campanulate to urceolate, 5–15 mm diam. Phyllaries 3–5 seriate, unequal, green, deltate to lanceolate or linear, margins sometimes narrowly scarious or with cilia, apices acute, abaxially glabrous or stipitate glandular to setose. Receptacles flat to convex, usually pitted, glabrous, without palea. Florets mostly 50–250; corollas yellow; anthers yellowish to brownish.Palea/Receptacular Bracts
Absent
Leaves
Leaves basal and cauline or mostly cauline, alternate; basal usually petiolate, cauline leaves often sessile; blades mostly oblong, oblanceolate, or lanceolate, bases usually auriculate, margins unlobed to runcinate; lobing pinnate, ultimate margins usually dentate, teeth typically prickly.
Pappus
Pappus tardily falling or persistent, of ca. 90 white, smooth or barbellulate bristles, more or less in one series, outer usually distinct, inner basally or connate.
Plant and Stem Features
Annuals or biennials with milky latex, 10–200 cm tall, tap-rooted, Stem herbaceous, often hollow and septate.
References
Conquist, A. 1980. Vascular Flora of the Southeastern United States, Vol. I, Asteraceae. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.
Hyatt, Philip E. 2006. Sonchus L. In: Flora North American North of
Radford, Albert, E,. Harry E. Ahles, & C. Ritchie Bell. 1968. Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.
USDA, NRCS. 2006. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 4 December 2006).
Species name
Sonchus oleraceus L.
Wetland Indicator Status
FACU