Helminthotheca echioides
species of plant
Helminthotheca echioides, known as bristly (or prickly) oxtongue, is a sprawling annual or biennial herb native to Europe and North Africa. It was originally placed within the genus Picris but is often separated within the small genus Helminthotheca alongside a few other (mainly North African) plants which also have the distinctive outer row of bracts around the flowerheads. It is a ruderal plant, found on waste ground and agricultural soils around the world, and in some places it is considered a troublesome weed.
Description
Bristly oxtongue is an annual to biennial herb with an erect or sprawling habit that grows up to 90 cm (35 in) tall (often up to 150 cm in fertile soils and shady places), with a solid, furrowed stem and spreading branches. The basal rosette leaves are 10–20 cm (4–8 in) long, oblanceolate with a short petiole, whereas the cauline leaves are lanceolate and sessile with clasping, cordate bases. On the leaves and stem (especially on the basal leaves) there are distinctive sharp bristles, 2 mm long, with swollen whitish bases that resemble blisters. On other parts of the plant there is a scattering of smaller, anchor-shaped hairs with recurved double-pronged tips which make the plant feel sticky.
In northern Europe it flowers from May to October. The inflorescences arise on long stalks from the leaf axils in an irregular corymb. Each flowerhead is 2–3.5 cm (0.8–1.4 in) wide with numerous yellow ray flowers (the outer florets sometimes tinged red/brown).
The public source identifies “Helminthotheca echioides” as species of plant. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Helminthotheca, echioides and species.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1764432. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Helminthotheca echioides” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.