Biennials, 15-150 cm. Leaves on proximal ¹/2-³/4 of each stem; blades of undivided cauline leaves obovate or oblanceolate to spatulate, margins denticulate (piloso-ciliate), midribs usually piloso-setose. Heads in paniculiform arrays. Involucres 12-15+ mm. Phyllaries usually reflexed in fruit. Florets 20-50+; corollas usually yellow, sometimes bluish, usually deliquescent. Cypselae: bodies brown to blackish (usually mottled), ± flattened, elliptic, 4.5-5+ mm, beaks ± filiform, 2.5-4.5 mm, faces 1(-3)-nerved; pappi white, 5-7(-11) mm. 2n = 34. Flowering Jun-Sep. Openings in woods, stream banks, prairies; 100-1400 m; B.C., Man., Sask.; Ariz., Ark., Calif., Colo., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., La., Minn., Mont., Nebr., N.Mex., N.Dak., Okla., Oreg., S.Dak., Tex., Utah, Wash., Wis., Wyo.

Plant: Biennial 1-2 m; sap milky; stems erect Leaves: basal and cauline, alternate, lanceolate in outline, lobed; lobes widely lanceolate, dentate INFLORESCENCE: primary inflorescence a head, each resembling a flower; open; heads ligulate, in flower 4-5 mm wide; involucre in fruit 15-22 mm Flowers: 20-56; corolla blue to ± yellow Fruit: achenes, 3-4 mm, elliptic, mottled gray and black, transversely roughened, 1-ribbed on each face, unwinged; beak slender, ± = body; pappus 7-12 mm, white, of many bristles, falling separately Misc: Waste places; < 300 m.