General: Perennial from deep, wide-spreading roots and creeping rhizomes; stems leafy, rather thin, green, without spiny wings, 30 cm to 2 m tall, highly branched above.
Leaves: Alternate, lance-shaped, irregularly lobed, spiny-toothed; hairless or green above, densely white-hairy beneath.
Flowers: Pink-purple, small heads of disk flowers only; involucre 1-2 cm high, the bracts tipped with weak prickles; several to many heads in an open inflorescence; plants are unisexual (male or female, but not with flower parts of both); male heads showier.
Fruits: Achenes, oblong, flattened, ribbed, 3-4 mm long; pappus of feathery, white bristles.
Ecology: Fields, pastures, meadows, clearings, roadsides; common and often abundant at low to middle elevations, primarily in the settled or agricultural portions of our region.