gallant soldier

not listed

NNR - Unranked

SNA - Not applicable

not listed

Shaggy soldier is considered invasive but is listed as a noxious weed only in Alaska.

UPL - Obligate upland

FACU - Facultative upland

UPL - Obligate upland

Gallant soldier is a small summer annual. It is native to South America and Mexico, and in the United States it is native to Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. It has been introduced and is now naturalized worldwide, including in much of the United States. It is widespread but uncommon in Minnesota. It is found on roadsides, gardens, and in other open disturbed areas. It grows under full or partial sun in moist or moderately moist, loamy soil.

Gallant soldier is a 1½″ to 23½″ (4 to 60 cm) tall, erect, annual forb that rises on a branching stem from a small taproot and fibrous roots.

The stem is erect or ascending, leafy, and finely ridged and grooved. It has few to many branches and is hairless or sparsely to moderately covered with appressed and sometimes spreading hairs. The upper part of the stem does not have glandular hairs.

The leaves are opposite, ¾″ to 4¼″ (2 to 11 cm) long, and ⅝″ to 2¾″ (15 to 70 mm) wide, sometimes wider. They are on slender, up to 1½″ (4 cm) long leaf stalks (petioles). The leaf blades are lance-shaped to broadly egg-shaped and unlobed. They are mostly angled or short-tapered at the base and are angled or tapered to a sharp point at the tip. The upper and lower surfaces are sparsely to densely covered with short, slender, more or less spreading hairs. Three main veins are visible on the upper side. The margins are coarsely toothed with obscure, rounded teeth that amount to little more than bumps, and they have a fringe of short, slender, more or less spreading hairs.

The inflorescence is an irregularly branched cluster (panicle) or loose cluster of flower heads, or sometimes just a single flower head, at the end of the stem and branches, and rising from the upper leaf axils of the main stem. Each flower head is on a 1⁄32″ to 1½″ (1 to 40 mm) long stalk (peduncle). The peduncle is covered with minute gland-tipped hairs.

Each flower head is small, just ¼″ to ½″ (6 to 12 mm) in diameter. At the base of each head there is a 3⁄32″ to ⅛″ (2.5 to 4.0 mm) long, 3⁄32″ to 3⁄16″ (2.5 to 5.0 mm) in diameter, hemispherical to bell-shaped, cup-like whorl (involucre) of 5 to 8 bracts (phyllaries) in two series. All of the phyllaries are green and are usually hairless. The inner series of 4 to 6 bracts are longer and broader than the outer 1 or 2 bracts. Each phyllary is fused to two thin dry (chaffy) bracts on the upper part of the peduncle (receptacle). The outer phyllaries have a thin white margin. They are dropped with their chaffy bracts as an intact unit with the fruits developing from the ray florets. The inner phyllaries are persistent.

The flower head has usually 5 widely spaced ray florets, sometimes just 4 or up to 8, and 15 to 35 disk florets. Both ray florets and disk florets are fertile. Each ray floret is usually dull white, with a tube-like portion at the base and a 1⁄16″to ⅛″ (2 to 3 mm) long, widely spreading portion (lamina). The lamina has three teeth at the tip. There is no tuft of bristles (pappus) at the base, or just a minute one, much shorter than the corolla tube, that cannot be seen without a hand lens. Sometimes the rays are pink, and flower heads with both ray colors can appear on the same plant. The disk flowers are yellow. The corollas are 1⁄32″ to 1 ⁄16″ (0.8 to 1.5 mm) long and have 5 minute lobes.

The fruit is a black, 1⁄16″to ⅛″ (1.5 to 2.0 mm) long, inversely cone-shaped or inversely pyramid-shaped (with the narrow end at the base), dry capsule (cypsela). At the base of each cypsela there is a yellowish pappus, usually shorter than the cypsela, that spreads outward as the cypsela matures. The seeds germinate quickly, and there are usually two or three generations each year. This is the feature that gives the plant one of its other common names, quickweed.

1½″ to 23½″ (4 to 60 cm)

White ray florets, yellow disk florets

Shaggy soldier (Galinsoga quadriradiata) stem hairs are spreading, not appressed. There are gland-tipped hairs near the top of the stem. The leaf margins have distinct, sharp teeth. Both inner and outer phyllaries fall off. The ray florets have a pappus that is as long as the corolla tube. It is more common in Minnesota.

Moist to moderately moist. Roadsides and other open disturbed areas. Full or partial sun. Loamy soil.

June to November

Sources

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

Native to South America, Mexico, Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. Introduced and naturalized.

Widespread but uncommon in Minnesota