This section is from the book "A Manual Of Weeds", by Ada E. Georgia. Also available from Amazon: A Manual Of Weeds.
Native. Perennial. Propagated by seeds.
Time of bloom: June to August.
Seed-time: August to October.
Range: Nova Scotia to Minnesota, southward to Georgia and
Louisiana. Habitat: Dry soil; fields, meadows, and waste places.
Stems rather slender, one to three feet tall, usually branched, finely hairy or sometimes smooth. Leaves alternate, oblong to lance-shaped, with few and shallow teeth, somewhat hairy, the lower ones with petioles, those on the stem sessile, the upper ones nearly linear. Flowers in terminal, leafy-bracted spikes, the blossoms sometimes nearly two inches broad, the petals notched at the outer edge, lustrous golden yellow, open in the daytime; tube of the calyx much longer than the ovary, its lobes narrowly lance-shaped and spreading. Capsules about a half-inch long, four-angled, and having four small wings projecting from the top, the base often narrowed abruptly to a short foot-stalk.
Starvation of the perennial roots by frequent, successive, close cuttings. In cultivated ground the plants are destroyed by the required tillage.
 
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