Helminthotheca echioides (Introduced- USA & Australia)

Helminthotheca echioides (L.) Holub, 176 1973. (Syn: Crepis echioides All.; Helminthia echioides (L.) Gaertn.; Helminthia echioides (L.) Holub; Helminthia echioides (L.) Juss.; Helminthia humifusa (Willd.) Trevir.; Helminthia pratensis Chevall.; Helminthia spinosa DC.; Helminthia tuberculata Moench; Helminthotheca echioides (L.) Lack; Picris echioides L.; Picris echioides var. pratensis (DC.) Maire; Picris echioides var. tuberculata (Moench) Fiori; Picris humifusa Willd.; Picris spinosa (DC.) Poir.);
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Medit. to Caucasus, E. Europe to Turkmenistan: Albania, Algeria, Azores, Baleares, Baltic States, Belarus, Bulgaria, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Corse, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, East Aegean Is., Egypt, France, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kriti, Krym, Lebanon-Syria, Libya, Madeira, Morocco, North Caucasus, Palestine, Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Transcaucasus, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkey-in-Europe, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Yugoslavia; Introduced into: Alberta, Arizona, Austria, Belgium, California, Cape Provinces, Chatham Is., Connecticut, Denmark, District of Columbia, Ethiopia, Free State, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Iowa, Ireland, KwaZulu-Natal, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Netherlands, New Brunswick, New Jersey, New South Wales, New York, New Zealand North, North Dakota, Northern Provinces, Norway, Ohio, Ontario, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Poland, Queensland, Romania, Saskatchewan, South Australia, Switzerland, Tasmania, Uruguay, Vermont, Victoria, Virginia, Western Australia, Zimbabwe as per POWO;
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Picris echioides, bristly ox-tongue, is a stiff annual or biennial herb native to Europe and North Africa. It was traditionally used as an antihelminthic treatment .^[4]

P. echioides may grow up to 90 cm (35 in) tall, with a thick, furrowed stem and spreading branches. The leaves are 10–20 cm (4–8 in) long, oblanceolate with a short petiole. The leaves, branches and stem are all covered in thick bristles. The inflorescences are 2–3.5 cm (0.8–1.4 in) wide and subtended by between 3 and 5 large ovate-cordate involucral bracts .^[5] These large bracts are the defining feature of the genus Helminthotheca, to which P. echioides may be assigned .^[6]

A number of infraspecific taxa are recognised, varying in their leaf shape .^[7]

Picris echioides is native to the Mediterranean Basin, but has become widely naturalised outside that range.

(From Wikipedia on 19.7.13)

Images by Gurcharan Singh, Inserted by Gurcharan Singh