Annuals, 10-100 cm. Stems simple or often branched from base, forming rounded bushy plants, gray-tomentose. Leaves gray-tomentose and scabrous to short-bristly; basal and proximal cauline petiolate or tapered to base, usually absent at anthesis, blades 5-15 cm, margins pinnately lobed or dissected; cauline long-decurrent, blades linear to oblong, 1-10 cm, entire. Heads disciform, borne singly or in open leafy arrays, long-pedunculate. Involucres ovoid, 13-17 mm, loosely cobwebby-tomentose or becoming glabrous. Principal phyllaries: bodies pale green, ovate, appendages stramineous to brown, each with palmately radiating cluster of spines, and stout central spine 10-25 mm. Inner phyllaries: appendages scarious, obtuse or abruptly spine tipped. Florets many. corollas yellow, all ± equal, 13-20 mm; sterile florets slender, inconspicuous. Cypselae dimorphic, 2-3 mm, glabrous, outer dark brown, without pappi, inner white or light brown, mottled; pappi of many white, unequal bristles 2-4 mm, fine. 2n = 16. Flowering mostly summer-autumn (Jun-Oct), sometimes year-round in frostfree coastal habitats. Roadsides, fields, pastures, woodlands; 0-2000 m; widely introduced; Alta., Man., Ont., Sask.; Ariz., Calif., Colo., Conn., Del., Fla., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., Mont., Nebr., Nev., N.H., N.J., N.Mex., N.Y., N.C., N.Dak., Ohio, Okla., Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.C., S.Dak., Tenn., Tex., Utah, Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis., Wyo.; s Europe.

Plant: Annual 1-10 dm, ± rounded, gray-tomentose Leaves: alternate; ± scabrous-bristly; lower 5-15 cm, 1-2-lobed, generally 0 at flower; cauline long-decurrent INFLORESCENCE: primary inflorescence a head, each resembling a flower; heads 1-many; open; involucre 13-17 mm, ovoid; main phyllaries pale green to straw-colored or brown, appendages palmately spiny, central spine 10-25 mm, stout Flowers: many; inner fruiting; corollas 13-20 mm, ± equal, yellow, sterile corollas slender; anther bases tailed, tips oblong; style top minutely hairy, tips minutely branched Fruit: 2-3 mm, glabrous, ± barrel-shaped, ± compressed, attached ± at side; outer fruit dark brown (pappus 0); inner fruit ± mottled light brown (pappus bristles 2-4 mm, fine, white) Misc: Pastures, roadsides, disturbed grassland or woodland; < 1300 m.; May-Oct