common burdock

(Arctium minus)

Conservation Status
common burdock
 
  IUCN Red List

not listed

     
  NatureServe

NNA - No Status Rank

SNA - No Status Rank

     
  Minnesota

not listed

     
           
Wetland Indicator Status
     
  Great Plains

FACU - Facultative upland

     
  Midwest

FACU - Facultative upland

     
  Northcentral & Northeast

FACU - Facultative upland

     
           
 
Description
 
 

Common 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

 
 

Purple, pink, or, sometimes, white

 
     
 

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
 
 

Distribution Map

 

Sources

2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 22, 24, 28, 29, 30.

 
  2/7/2023      
         
 

Nativity

 
 

Native to Northern Africa, Western Asia, and Europe. Introduced and naturalized in the United States. Potentially invasive.

 
         
 

Occurrence

 
 

Common

 
         
 
Taxonomy
 
  Kingdom Plantae (green algae and land plants)  
  Subkingdom Viridiplantae (green plants)  
  Infrakingdom Streptophyta (land plants and green algae)  
  Superdivision Embryophyta (land plants)  
  Division Tracheophyta (vascular plants)  
  Subdivision Spermatophytina (seed plants)  
  Class Magnoliopsida (flowering plants)  
  Superorder Asteranae  
 

Order

Asterales (sunflowers, bellflowers, fanflowers, and allies)  
 

Family

Asteraceae (sunflowers, daisies, asters, and allies)  
  Subfamily Carduoideae (thistles and allies)  
  Tribe Cardueae  
  Subtribe Carduinae (thistles and burdocks)  
  Genus Arctium (burdocks)  
       
 

Cardueae is a synonym of the tribe name. Cynareae was published first and has precedence. Nevertheless, most sources use the name Cardueae for the tribe.

 
       
 

Subordinate Taxa

 
 

 

 
       
 

Synonyms

 
 

Arctium pubens

Lappa minor

 
       
 

Common Names

 
 

bardane

beggar’s button

burdock

clotbur

cockle-button

common burdock

cuckoo-button

lesser burdock

lesser burrdock

small burdock

smaller burdock

wild burdock

wild rhubarb

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glossary

Axil

The upper angle where the leaf stalk meets the stem.

 

Bract

Modified leaf at the base of a flower stalk, flower cluster, or inflorescence.

 
 
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Leah Starks

 
    common burdock      
 

Bill Reynolds

 
    common burdock      
           
 
MinnesotaSeasons.com Photos
 
 

Plant

 
    common burdock   common burdock  
           
    common burdock   common burdock  
           
    common burdock   common burdock  
           
 

Inflorescence

 
    common burdock   common burdock  
           
    common burdock   common burdock  
           
 

Flower Heads

 
    common burdock   common burdock  
           
 

Leaves

 
    common burdock   common burdock  

 

Camera

     
 
Slideshows
 
  Arctium minus
Matt Lavin
 
  Arctium minus  
 
About

Introduced biennial to short-lived perennial similar to Arctium lappa but perhaps standing upwards of just over 1 m tall, with basal leaves up to 20 cm long, flowering heads 15-30 mm wide and arranged in panicles of spikes. Arctium species do well in sites that are frequently disturbed.

 
  Common Burdock (Arctium minus)
Andree Reno Sanborn
 
  Common Burdock (Arctium minus)  
  Arctium minus | Lesser Burdock (Part 1 of 2)
SurvivalPlantsMemory
 
   
 
About

Uploaded on Feb 5, 2012

Visit Website: http://www.survivalplantsmemorycourse.com/

Photos used under protection of the "fair use" section (107) of the U.S. copyright act of 1976. http://www.youtube.com/watch?

 
  Arctium minus | Lesser Burdock (Part 2 of 2)
SurvivalPlantsMemory
 
   
 
About

Uploaded on Feb 5, 2012

Visit Website: http://www.survivalplantsmemorycourse.com/

Photos used under protection of the "fair use" section (107) of the U.S. copyright act of 1976. http://www.youtube.com/watch?

 

 

slideshow

       
 
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Other Videos
 
  Common Burdock / Arctium minus
momentaryvitality
 
   
 
About

Published on Jan 8, 2013

ww.momentaryvitality.ca

   
  Lesser Burdock (Arctium Minus) - 2012-07-14
W3stlander
 
   
 
About

Published on Jul 16, 2012

Lesser burdock (Bardane, Common burdock, Lesser burrdock).

----------------
De gewone klit (Arctium minus) is een vaste plant, die tot de composietenfamilie (Asteraceae) behoort.

   

 

Camcorder

 
 
Visitor Sightings
 
           
 

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  Leah Starks
7/26/2019

Location: Red Oak Disc Golf Park Burnsville, MN

common burdock  
  Bill Reynolds
8/11/2013

Location: Pennington County

common burdock  
           
 
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