Common burdock

Conservation Status

IUCN Red List

not listed

NatureServe

NNA - Not applicable
SNA - Not applicable

Minnesota

not listed

Weed Status

While common burdock is not currently listed on the Minnesota Noxious Weed List or list of Invasive terrestrial plants, it is widely considered an invasive weed throughout North America. According to EDDMapS, it is officially listed as a noxious or invasive species in several states and provinces (including West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Alberta). Regardless of its legal status, it is a tenacious invader of pastures, open prairies, and disturbed sites wherever it occurs.

Wetland Indicator Status

Great Plains

FACU - Facultative upland

Midwest

FACU - Facultative upland

Northcentral & Northeast

FACU - Facultative upland

Description

Common burdock, also called lesser burdock, is a 2′ to 4½′ tall, rarely taller, erect, biennial forb that rises on a single stem from a fleshy taproot. In its first year of growth this produces a rosette of basal leaves. In the second year it produces a hollow stalk that is branched, hairy, and ridged.

Basal leaves are large, heart shaped and indented at the base where they attach to long leaf stalks. They are 12″ to 24″ long and 6″ to 14″ wide. The leaf stalk is 6″ to 20″ long, hollow at least at the base, and not grooved. The upper surface is green with sparse short hairs. The lower surface is light green or gray-green, with a thin covering of matted, short, soft, woolly hairs. The leaf margins are wavy. By the time the flowers are fully open the basal leaves are usually withered.

Stem leaves are much smaller, alternate, and egg-shaped, getting progressively smaller toward the top of the stem. They are nearly hairless on both the upper and lower surfaces.

Flower heads appear in a clusters at the end of the stem and in the upper leaf axils. The clusters are crowded and densely packed.

The flower heads have about 30 purple, pink, or, sometimes, white florets, are on short stalks or on no stalks at all. The whorl of overlapping bracts subtending the flower head is ½″ to 1″ in diameter and hairless. The bracts are hooked at the tip. When dry the flower head becomes a bur resembling a thistle. Thistles, however, do not have hooked bracts.

Height

2′ to 4½′, rarely taller

Flower Color

2′ to 4½′, rarely taller

Similar Species

Woolly burdock (Arctium tomentosum) leaf margins are flat or only slightly wavy. The flower heads are densely cobwebby. The inflorescence is a group of stalked flower heads with the outer ones on longer stalks, forming a flat-topped or convex cluster.

Great burdock (Arctium lappa) leaf stalks, including near the base of the plant, are mostly solid and are deeply grooved. The flower heads are on long stalks. The inflorescence is a group of long-stalked flower heads with the outer ones on longer stalks, forming a flat-topped or convex cluster. The heads are larger, 1″ to 1½″ in diameter.

Habitat

Disturbed sites, roadsides.

Ecology

Flowering

July to October

Pests and Diseases

Use

Distribution

Sources

2, 3, 5, 7, 24, 28, 30, 83.

Biodiversity occurrence data published by: Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas (accessed through the Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas Portal, bellatlas.umn.edu. Accessed 2/27/2026).

Midwest Herbaria Portal. 2026. https://midwestherbaria.org/portal/index.php. Accessed 2/27/2026.

Arctium minus (Hill) Bernh. in GBIF Secretariat (2023). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org. Accessed 2/27/2026.

EDDMapS. 2013. Early Detection & Distribution Mapping System. The University of Georgia - Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health. Available online at www.eddmaps.org/. Accessed 2/27/2026.