Distribution
Ukraine (introduced)

Native to: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas.
Introduced into: Bahamas, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Cape Provinces, Colombia, Connecticut, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Djibouti, East Himalaya, El Salvador, France, Free State, Germany, Gilbert Is., Guatemala, Hawaii, Honduras, Hungary, India, Italy, Jawa, Korea, Krym, KwaZulu-Natal, Line Is., Madeira, Maine, Marianas, Mexico Southeast, Myanmar, Nansei-shoto, New Hampshire, Nicaragua, Northern Provinces, Pakistan, Poland, Queensland, Romania, Réunion, Spain, Tadzhikistan, Taiwan, Trinidad-Tobago, Tubuai Is., Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vermont, Vietnam, Yugoslavia.

Annuals (sometimes persisting), 5-35(-60+) cm. Leaves cauline; petiolar bases 0-3+ cm; blades linear, oblong, or spatulate, 1-5(-12) cm × 4-12(-35) mm, (bases of distal ± clasping) margins usually entire, sometimes toothed or lobed, faces closely strigillose or hirtellous to ± villous (hairs jointed). Peduncles 3-10(-20) cm. Phyllaries 18-28+, narrowly triangular- to linear-attenuate, 6-14+ mm, usually ciliate with jointed hairs. Receptacular setae 1.5-3 mm. Ray florets usually 8-14, rarely 0; corollas usually reddish to purplish proximally, yellow to orange distally, rarely yellow, reddish, or purplish throughout, 13-30+ mm. Disc florets 40-100+; corollas yellowish to purple or brown, often bicolored, tubes 0.8-1.2 mm, throats campanulate to urceolate, 3-4 mm, lobes deltate to ovate, often attenuate, 1-3+ mm, jointed hairs 0.3+ mm. Cypselae obpyramidal, 2-2.5 mm, hairs 1.5-2 mm, inserted at bases and on angles; pappi of 7-8 deltate to lanceolate, aristate scales 4-7 mm (scarious bases 1-2.5 × 0.7-1.3 mm). 2n = 34.
Flowering Jan-Dec, mostly May-Aug. Sandy or calcareous soils, often disturbed places, mostly in grasslands or open places.