504 



COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY) 



FIG. 350. Fireweed (Erechtites 

 hieracifolia) . X . 



lance-shaped, thin; irregularly cut and 

 toothed, the lower ones narrowing 

 to margined petioles, the upper ones 

 sessile, clasping, often auricled at 

 base. Flowers in open terminal 

 panicles, the heads greenish white, 

 the flowers all tubular and fertile, 

 hardly exceeding the nearly cylindric, 

 smooth involucre, which is slightly 

 swollen at the base. Achenes oblong, 

 with very glistening, fine, white 

 pappus. (Fig. 350.) 



Means of control 



Prevent seed production by pull- 

 ing or close cutting before the first 

 flowers mature. 



COMMON GROUNDSEL 



Senecio vulgaris, L. 



Other English names: Grinsel, Simson, Birdseed, Chicken Weed. 

 Introduced. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 

 Time of bloom : April to October. 

 Seed-time: May to November. 



Range : Newfoundland and Hudson Bay to North Carolina, Michi- 

 gan, and South Dakota. Also on the Pacific Coast. 

 Habitat: Gardens and cultivated fields, waste places. 



In Europe, whence this plant came to us, it is often sown to 

 furnish green food for cage birds and for poultry. In this country 

 it is frequently a great vexation to the truck gardener, for in fertile 

 soil it sometimes appears in such quantities as to smother all other 



Stem six to fifteen inches high, succulent, hollow, slightly angled, 

 much branched, and leafy to the top. Leaves oblong, pinnatifid, 

 the segments also oblong and toothed ; the lower ones taper back- 

 ward to a petiole, but those of the stem are clasping and some- 



