Native. Annual. Propagates by seeds.

Time of bloom: July to September.

Seed-time: August to October.

Range: New Jersey to Iowa, southward to Georgia and Texas.

Habitat: Dry, sandy fields, roadsides, and waste places.

A very common and troublesome weed in the southern part of our area, particularly in the Gulf States. Stem one to two feet in height, erect, branching, densely soft-woolly with star-shaped hairs. Leaves also finely woolly on both sides, silvery green, oblong lance-shape with rounded or heart-shaped base, entire, the larger lower ones with petioles about as long as the blades, those near the top short-petioled. Flowers clustered at the summit of stem and branches; they are monoecious, the sterile ones lifted on a short raceme, at the base of which the fertile ones are crowded on very short pedicels; sterile flowers with five-parted calyx, five spatu-late fringed petals alternating with as many glands, usually ten stamens, or sometimes more, with filaments finely bearded below; fertile flowers with seven- to twelve-lobed calyx, no petals, and three styles twice or thrice cleft. Seeds gray or brownish, rounded oblong, with a tiny knob or caruncle at the point; they are often an impurity of southern alfalfa seed. (Fig. 184.)

Fig. 184. - Hogwort (Croton capitatus). X 1/4.

Means Of Control

Prevent seed production. Infested grass crops should even be harvested too early, in order to prevent continued fouling of the ground. Roadsides and waste places should be mown often enough to guard neighboring soil from contamination.