Erechtites glossantha

Erechtites glossantha is an erect annual or short-lived perennial herb in the Asteraceae family, native to Andean South America. Plants grow 50 to 150 centimetres tall, with stout, ribbed, glabrous to sparsely pubescent stems that are often hollow and branched in the upper portion. Leaves are alternate, simple, narrowly lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, 6 to 18 centimetres long, with irregularly serrate to coarsely toothed margins; lower leaves taper to a winged petiole, while upper leaves become sessile and partly clasping. Inflorescences are loose, branched terminal panicles of erect, narrowly cylindric capitula 10 to 15 millimetres long; each head contains numerous yellowish to greenish-white disc florets and is surrounded by a single series of equal-length involucral bracts with smaller calyculate bracts at the base, characteristic of the genus. Fruits are slender ribbed cypselae crowned with a pappus of soft white capillary bristles that aid wind dispersal.