American burnweed

Erechtites hieraciifolius is a robust annual herb of the daisy family growing 0.3-2.5 m tall with a slender taproot and an erect, hollow, longitudinally grooved stem that is somewhat sparsely pubescent or nearly glabrous. Leaves are alternate, lanceolate to oblanceolate, 7-20 cm long, sessile and somewhat clasping above, the margins coarsely and irregularly toothed to pinnately lobed; both surfaces are sparsely hairy with a pungent odour when crushed. Inflorescences are open to crowded terminal corymbs of cylindrical, swollen-based discoid capitula 12-17 mm long bearing only tubular disc florets, the involucre cylindric with a single row of equal linear-lanceolate green bracts and a few small calyculate bractlets at the base. Florets are white to pale yellow with included styles. The fruits are slender, ribbed achenes 2-3 mm long crowned by a copious pappus of soft white bristles. Native to open disturbed ground, burned-over areas, and woodland clearings of the Americas, it flowers from summer to autumn.