Packera glabella (Poir.) C. Jeffrey

Butterweed; Smooth Ragwort; Cress Leaf Groundsel

Herb

Annual

Vascular

Smooth Ragwort is a native annual in the Sunflower family (Asteraceae). It can be found throughout the state. Smooth Ragwort grows in floodplain forests, in low fields and pastures, in cypress or gum ponds, and in roadside ditches. It is a fibrous rooted annual growing to 2-3 feet in height. The stems are hollow, striated, glabrous, and green or purple in color. Leaves are basal and cauline. The leaves are alternate, obovate to oblanceolate in outline, pinnately lobed, with crenate margins. The terminal lobe is larger than the lateral lobes. The leaves are glabrous and short petiolate. Flowers are produced in heads. The heads are arranged in umbels or corymbs at the apex of the stem. Each head has 8-13 yellow ray flowers and 30-50 yellow disc flowers. The fruit is an achene with a tuft of white pappus at its apex. This plant is eagerly eaten by crayfish when streams are in flood.--A. Diamond

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Native FACW+ (NWPL)

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