shaggy soldier

not listed

NNA - Not applicable

SNA - Not applicable

not listed

Shaggy soldier is considered invasive but is not listed as a noxious weed in any state.

FACU - Facultative upland

FACU - Facultative upland

FACU - Facultative upland

Shaggy soldier is a small summer annual. It is native to central Mexico and possibly also to Central and South America. It has been introduced worldwide. In the United States it is now naturalized in the northeast, southeast, and north-central regions, and is adventive in the remainder of the country. It is found mostly in disturbed areas, including roadsides, fields, vacant lots, orchards, gardens, greenhouses, and neglected lawns. It grows under full or partial sun in moist or moderately moist, loamy soil.

Shaggy soldier is a 3″ to 24″ (8 to 62 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 moderately to densely covered with spreading hairs. Hairs near the top of the stem have minute dark glands at the tip.

The leaves are opposite, ¾″ to 2⅜″ (20 to 60 mm) long, and ⅝″ to 1¾″ (15 to 45 mm) wide. They are on slender, up to 1½″ (4 cm) long leaf stalks (petioles). The leaf blades are lance-shaped to 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 sparsely to moderately toothed with distinct, narrowly angled teeth, 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 3⁄16″ to ¾″ (5 to 20 mm) long stalk (peduncle). The peduncle is covered with 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 ⅛″ to 3⁄16″ (3 to 5 mm) long, ⅛″ to ¼″ (3 to 6 mm) in diameter, hemispherical to bell-shaped, cup-like whorl (involucre) of 8 to 12 bracts (phyllaries) in two series. All of the phyllaries are green and are moderately to densely covered with gland-tipped hairs. The inner series of 4 to 6 bracts are longer and broader than the outer 2 or 3 bracts. Each phyllary is fused to two thin dry (chaffy) bracts on the upper part of the peduncle (receptacle). The phyllaries and their chaffy bracts are dropped as an intact unit with the fruits developing from the ray florets.

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 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 a well developed tuft of bristles (pappus) at the base that is as long as the corolla tube. 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 2.5 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.

3″ to 24″ (8 to 62 cm)

White ray florets, yellow disk florets

Gallant soldier (Galinsoga parviflora var. parviflora) stem hairs are mostly appressed, not spreading, and not glandular. The leaf margins have obscure, rounded teeth. The inner phyllaries are persistent, they do not fall off. The ray florets have no pappus or just a minute pappus that is not visible without a hand lens. It is less common but just as widespread in Minnesota.

Moist to moderately moist. Disturbed areas including roadsides, fields, vacant lots, orchards, gardens, greenhouses, and neglected lawns. Full or partial sun. Loamy soil.

June to October

Sources

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

Native to central Mexico. Introduced and naturalized in Minnesota.

Common

These have been popping up on my beach. Wondering if it is non-native and I should pull.

Plant

Inflorescence

Leaves

Location: Lake Shore

These have been popping up on my beach. Wondering if it is non-native and I should pull.