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Annual or sometimes ?short-lived perennial herb 0.3–2.5 m high; stem often purple, branches scabridulous to glabrous. Leaves ovate or narrowly ovate, 2–22 cm long, 0.7–9.5 cm wide, base gradually narrowing, the very base connate with that of opposite leaf, margins finely serrate to serrate, apex acuminate or attenuate, scabrid or scabridulous above, thinly pubescent and glandular beneath; 3-veined from base. Capitula in terminal and axillary lax panicles; stalks of individual capitula 1–4 mm long; involucre 3–5.5 mm long (but sometimes closely subtended by leafy bracts to 12 mm long), 5–8 mm in diameter, the phyllaries pilose, ciliate; paleae 3 mm long, glandular. Ray florets many, in 2 rows but may look as if uniseriate, yellow, tube 0.5–0.8 mm long and glandular, ray 0.8–1 mm long; disc florets many, yellow, 1–1.8 mm long, the tube glandular. Achenes dark brown, obovoid, 1.8–2.5 mm long, 4-angled, glabrous; pappus absent. Fig. 168 (page 775).