Native. Annual. Propagates by seed.

Time of bloom: March to June.

Seed-time: May to July.

Range: North Carolina to southern Illinois and Missouri, southward to Florida, Texas, and New Mexico. Habitat: Fields, meadows, and waste places.

A rather stout, coarse plant, with furrowed, hollow, and succulent stem, one to three feet tall, sparingly branched. Leaves alternate, three to ten inches long, smooth, fleshy, and tender, and most variable in shape; they are pinnately divided, the segments rounded or oblong or spoon-shaped or pointed, with wavy-toothed edges or entire, but usually with terminal segment larger than the others; the basal and lower leaves have slender petioles, but those above are sessile. Flowers in open corymbose clusters, the heads about three-fourths of an inch broad, bright yellow, with six to twelve broad, wedge-shaped rays.

Fig. 351. - But-terweed (Senecio gla-bellus). X 1/6.

Achenes minutely hairy on the ridges with a long, silky, white pappus, by which the wind is able to distribute them very widely. (Fig. 351.)

Means Of Control

Prevent seed production by every means possible. Sheep grazing; frequent and persistent hoe-cutting while young; cultivation of the ground; even hand-pulling for small areas. Being annual, the weed must succumb if not permitted to reproduce itself.