herbaceous, annual, the stem, branches, petioles, peduncles and leaves (both surfaces) hairy with long, jointed, spreading, soft hairs; stems diffuse, weak, hollow, simple or branched, laxly leafy, the branches pedunculoid, one-headed; radical leaves petioled, obovate-oblong, more or less lyrate or sinuate, the terminal lobe large, toothed or irregularly sinuate, the lateral small, narrow-oblong or toothlike; cauline lvs. ear-clasping, the lowermost petioled, the upper sessile, small, oblong or linear; outer inv. sc. in several rows, oblong, obtuse, pilose, with recurved, short points; achenes smooth, crowned with a minute appressed, 8-crenate pappus. Nearly stemless when it begins to blossom; the stem afterwards lengthening by successive lateral branches, and becoming 10–12 inches long or more. Radical lvs. numerous, rosulate, 4–5 inches long, 1–1 1/2 in. wide, variably incised. Pubescence very copious, especially on the young parts. Rays pale-yellow, concolourous. A specimen in Hb. Sond., from Hamburg Bot. Gard., called V. arctotoides, evidently belongs to this plant; its leaves, &c. are enlarged by cultivation, but the principal characters preserved.
