Slender, moderately branched with erect or ascending stems, 12 to 24 inches tall; leaves alternate, smooth, toothed or pinnatifid; flower heads small; ray flowers white or purplish, disc flowers yellow; both ray and disc flowers perfect.
Stems erect or weakly ascending, simple, no hairs to densely hairy and glandular; leaf bases towards end of stem wedge-shaped to slightly heart-shaped, sometimes slightly clasping; involucres (bracts below the flower heads) rounded overall, 1/3 inch tall
Habitat
Wet or occasionally flooded habitats, stream banks, lakeshores, ditches, fields, disturbed areas.
Flower Characteristics
Flower heads solitary at tips of branches; ray florets 20 to 40, disc florets 40 to 75; ray flowers (strap-shaped), 1/4 inch long, purplish; bracts lance-like, 1/8 to 1/4 inch high, outer bracts oblong, green, narrow, minutely and closely glandular
Leaf and Stem Characteristics
Leaves narrow to oblong, stemless, to 1-1/2 inches long, smooth or slightly toothed, sparsely hairy.
Fruit and Seed Characteristics
Achenes more or less compressed, slightly striate (long, thin lines), sparsely appressed-hairy; ray achenes without pappus, disc achenes with pappus of capillary bristles about as long as the achenes.