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Arctium lappa

(Beggars Buttons)

Overview

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Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in Chinese:

Niu Bang Zi

Common Names in English:

Beggars Buttons, Burdock, Cockle-Button, Edible Burdock, Grande Bardane, Great Burdock, Great Burdock, Greater Burdock, Greater Burrdock, Lappa

Common Names in French:

Bardane Comestible, Glouteron, Grande Bardane

Common Names in German:

Große Klette

Common Names in Japanese:

Gobo

Common Names in Portuguese:

Bardana-Maior

Common Names in Spanish:

Bardana, Lampazo Mayor, Lapa

Description

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Family Compositae

The largest family of flowering plants , the Compositae (Asteraceae), comprising about 1,100 genera and more than 20,000 species and characterized by many small flowers arranged in a head looking like a single flower and subtended by an involucre of bracts. A head may consist of both ray flowers and disk flowers, as in the sunflower, of disk flowers only, as in the burdock, or of ray flowers only, as in the dandelion.

Genus Arctium

Biennials or (monocarpic ) perennials, 50-300 cm; herbage not spiny . Stems erect , openly branched, branches ascending . Leaves basal and cauline; long-petiolate; gradually smaller distally; blade margins entire or dentate (pinnately lobed or dissected ), faces abaxially resin-gland-dotted, adaxially often tomentose . Heads discoid , in leafy-bracted racemiform to paniculiform or corymbiform arrays. ( Peduncles 0 or 1-9 cm.) Involucres spheric to ovoid . Phyllaries many in 9-17 series, outer and mid narrowly linear . bases appressed , margins entire. apices stiffly radiating, hooked-spiny tipped, inner linear, ascending or erect, straight tipped. Receptacles ± flat, epaleate, bearing subulate scales . Florets (5-) 20-40+; corollas pink to ± purple, glabrous or glandular-puberulent, tubes elongate . throats campanulate . lobes narrowly triangular, ± equal; anther bases tailed , apical appendages ovate , obtuse to acute; style branches: fused portions distally hairy-ringed, distinct portions oblong , acute or obtuse . Cypselae obovoid . ± compressed , rough or ribbed , glabrous, attachment scars basal; pappi falling, of many bristles in 2-4 series . x = 18.

Species 10: introduced ; Eurasia , n Africa, widely introduced worldwide.

At maturity the dry heads of Arctium species are readily caducous with the enclosed cypselae, and the hooked phyllary tips cling easily to fur or fabrics. Animal dispersal is a major factor in the spread of burdock species across North America. The burs are a major problem when they become entangled in the wool of sheep and fur of dogs and other animals.

Published chromosome reports for Arctium other than n = 18 are probably in error because of difficulty in interpretation of somatic chromosomes (R. J. Moore and C. Frankton 1974).[1]

Physical Description

Species Arctium lappa

Plants to 100-300 cm. Basal leaves : petioles solid, 15-36 cm, glabrous or thinly cobwebby; blades 25-80 × 20-70 cm, coarsely dentate to subentire , abaxially thinly gray-tomentose, adaxially green, sparsely short-hairy to nearly glabrous. Heads usually in corymbiform clusters , long-pedunculate. Peduncles 2.5-6 cm. Involucres 25-45 mm diam. Phyllaries linear to linear-lanceolate, glabrous to loosely cobwebby, inner usually stramineous (sometimes purplish), margins with minute spreading or reflexed hairs . Florets 40+; corollas purple (occasionally white), 9-14 mm, glabrous. Cypselae light brown, often with darker spots, 6-7.5 mm; pappus bristles 2-5 mm. 2n = 32 (Japan), 34 (China), 36 (Japan) ; (Sweden). [source]

Habit: Forb/herb

Flowers: Bloom Period: Waste places, roadsides, fields , forest clearings; 0-2200 m (Ref. 51656).

Flower Color: blue-violet, red-purple

Size/Age/Growth

Size: 24-36" tall.

Habitat

Waste places, roadsides, fields , forest clearings; 0-2200 m (Ref. 51656).

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 2,631 meters (0 to 8,632 feet).[2]

Biology

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Reproduction

Duration: Biennial

Growth

Culture: Space 36-48" apart.

Soil: Minimum pH: 6.6 • Maximum pH: 8.5

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Sun to Partial Shade.

Temperature: Cold Hardiness: 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b, 4a, 4b, 5a, 5b, 6a, 6b, 7a, 7b, 8a, 8b, 9a, 9b, 10a, 10b. (map)

Taxonomy

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Synonyms

Arundinaria japonica Sieb. & Zucc. Ex Steud. • Lappa Lappa • Sasa japonica (Sieb. & Zucc. Ex Steud.) Makino

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Comment: Data Providers: SANBI, New Zealand Plant Name Database, Flora Malesiana, Flora of Korea, Govaerts World Compositae Checklist A-G, IPNI, Flora of China Checklist, Tropicos, Euro+Med, Vietnam Flora, New South Wales Flora Online. GCC LSID: urn :lsid:compositae.org:names:064F5669-8F83-4377-AE71-60BABA4EB805

Last scrutiny: 12-Nov-09

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Arctium

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 16 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

A. lappa (Beggars Buttons) · A. lappa majus (Edible Burdock) · A. lappa 'Chiko' (Beggars Buttons) · A. lappa 'Ha Gobo' (Edible Burdock) · A. lappa 'Shirohada' (Vegetable Burdock) · A. lappa 'Takinogawa' (Edible Burdock) · A. lappa 'Takinogawa Long' (Beggars Buttons) · A. lappa 'Watanabe Early' (Edible Burdock) · A. minus (Bardane) · A. mixtum (Burrdock) · A. nemorosum (Wood Burdock) · A. nothum (Burrdock) · A. tomentosum (Woolly Burdock) · A. vulgare (European Burdock) · A. x mixtum (Burrdock) · A. x nothum (Burrdock)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 12, 2007:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. David J. Keil "Arctium". in Flora of North America Vol. 19, 20 and 21 Page 28, 58, 83, 168, 169. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. Mean = 118.890 meters (390.059 feet), Standard Deviation = 175.190 based on 3,491 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
Last Revised: 7/15/2012