Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Greater Burdock - Arctium lappa   L.
Members of Asteraceae:
Members of Arctium with account distribution info or public map:
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Section 6 » Order Asterales » Family Asteraceae
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AuthorL.
DistributionMountains only, where collected from Burke, Alleghany, and Watauga counties. First collected in 1958 in Bamboo, Watauga County. Records from the other 2 counties are skeletal and lack data.

Native to Eurasia; in N.A. southern Canada south to GA, AL, AZ, CA; absent from midlands from SD south to MS, LA, TX, NM.
AbundanceVery rare to rare.
HabitatField.
PhenologyFlowering and fruiting July-October.
IdentificationBurdocks (Arctium spp.) are thistle-like plants, at least with the inflorescences -- numerous purple to rose-colored flowers, all with disk corollas only, and usually spiny bracts. Greater Burdock differs from A. minus in having long stalks to the heads (vs. very short in the latter). It is told from A. tomentosum by its broader heads and sparsely cobwebby phyllaries (vs. densely cobwebby in that species).
Taxonomic Comments
Other Common Name(s)
State RankSE
Global RankGNR
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US Status
USACE-agcp
USACE-emp
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