Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by seeds.

Time of bloom: May to August.

Seed-time: July to September.

Range: Quebec to Minnesota, southward to New Jersey.

Habitat: Fields, pastures, roadsides, and waste places.

Cattle refuse to eat these rough-hairy plants, though people are said to have used the leaves as a substitute for tea in Revolutionary times. Root deep-boring, pinkish white, spindle-shaped. Stems one to three feet high, erect, much branched, and leafy to the summit. Leaves broadly lance-shaped, pointed at both ends, rough-hairy above, downy underneath, entire, and sessile. Flowers cream-colored or greenish white, very small, on very short pedicels in the upper axils; corolla funnel-form, five-lobed, with five hairy crests in the throat; calyx rough-hairy, with narrow, acute segments, nearly as long as the corolla. The four nutlets each about an eighth of an inch long, ovoid, smooth, shining, pearl-white.

Means Of Control

Deep cutting while in first bloom. If the root is merely shaved at the surface it sprouts again, but when cut well below the crown it dies. Badly infested ground is best treated by putting to a well-tilled hoed crop.