Common Burdock
Scientific Name: Arctium minus (Hill) Bernh.
Other Names: clotbur, cockle button
Life Cycle: biennial
General Description: A biennial with large leafed rosette the first year and branched perennial with dandelion-like leaves forming a rosette.
Seedlings: Cotyledons are ovate with a waxy surface. Young leaves are egg-shaped on the end of long redish-purple petioles.
True Leaves and Stem: Plant
forms a basal rosette first year and has branching stems the second
year. Leaves are very large, heart shaped, and has wavy margins. Plant
resembles a hairy version of rhubarb the first year. Undersurface of
leaf is woolly, upper surface is smooth. Stems are hoolow, grooved, and
angular.
Roots: taproot
Flower and Fruit: Purple
disk flowers are produced the second year and look like those of
thistles. Flower head dries to form a bur with hooked bracts that adhere
to surfaces like velcro. Seed is enclosed in an achene.