Senecio vernalis

Senecio vernalis is a slender annual or biennial herb of the daisy family growing 15-50 cm tall with a slender taproot and a softly white-woolly indumentum at least when young. Stems are erect, simple or branched above, and sparsely leafy. Leaves are alternate, oblanceolate in outline, 4-10 cm long, deeply pinnatifid into narrow oblong lobes with toothed margins; the lower leaves are petiolate while the upper ones clasp the stem with auricled bases. Inflorescences are loose corymbs of small radiate capitula 1-2 cm across; ray florets are 10-15, bright yellow, spreading to slightly reflexed, surrounding a central disc of yellow tubular florets. Involucral bracts are in a single row with prominent black-tipped apices and a few much shorter outer bracts. Fruits are cylindrical achenes 1.5-2.5 mm long covered with short hairs and crowned by a pappus of fine white bristles. Native to dry sandy fields, roadsides, and waste places of eastern Europe and western Asia, it flowers from April to June.