COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY} 



465 



Seeed-time: June to September. 



Range: Minnesota to the Northwest Territory, southward to 

 Texas and Arizona. Also in Tennessee and locally in the Eastern 

 States. . 



Habitat: Meadows, roadsides, and waste land. 



Like its relatives, the Black-eyed Susan 

 and Purple Cone-flower, this plant has 

 been introduced in a number of widely 

 separated localities by the agency of 

 western baled hay and grass seeds. 

 Stem one to nearly three feet tall, 

 branching from the base, slender and 

 beset with stiff, bristly hairs. Leaves 

 alternate, dark green, thick, rough-hairy, 

 strongly ribbed, pinnately divided into 

 narrow, long-pointed segments ; those 

 on the stem are sessile or have very 

 short petioles ; those at the base have 

 long, slender petioles and fewer seg- 

 ments; occasionally some are undi- 

 vided and oblong. The heads have 

 an elongated, cone-shaped, or nearly 

 cylindrical disk, often more than an 

 inch in length, set with grayish brown 

 florets, perfect and fertile, the corollas 

 five-lobed but with very short tubes ; 

 rays neutral, four to ten in number, large 

 and drooping, yellow with a brownish 

 purple base or wholly of the darker 

 color. Achenes short and flattened, with 



winged margins, and a pappus of one or two awl-like teeth. (Fig. 

 325.) 



Means of control should be the same as for the Purple Cone- 

 flower. 



COMMON SUNFLOWER 



Helidnthus dnnuus, L. 



Native. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 

 Time of bloom: July to September. 



FIG. 325. Prairie Cone- 

 (Lepachys columnaris). 



