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Montana Field Guides

Field Sowthistle - Sonchus arvensis
Other Names:  Perennial Sow-thistle, Perennial Sowthistle, Corn Sow Thistle, Gutweed, Swine Thistle, Tree Sow Thistle

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Non-native Species

Global Rank: GNR
State Rank: SNA
C-value: 0


Agency Status
USFWS:
USFS:
BLM:


 

External Links

 
General Description
Rhizomatous perennial. Stems erect, 30–140 cm, sometimes branched above. Leaves linear-oblanceolate, pinnately lobed, 4–30 cm long, winged-petiolate below to sessile and auriculate above. Involucres 1–2 cm high; phyllaries glabrous or rarely stipitate-glandular. Ray ligules 7–13 mm long. Achenes brown, 2–4 mm long, minutely bumpy (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

We have subspecies arvensis and uliginosus (M.Bieb.) Nyman.

Species Range
Montana Range Range Descriptions

Non-native
 


Range Comments
Introduced; across most of North America.

Observations in Montana Natural Heritage Program Database
Number of Observations: 204

(Click on the following maps and charts to see full sized version) Map Help and Descriptions
Relative Density

Recency

 

(Observations spanning multiple months or years are excluded from time charts)



Habitat
Wet meadows, marshes, ditch banks, irrigated fields, plains, valleys (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).
Predicted Suitable Habitat Model

This species has a Predicted Suitable Habitat Model available.

To learn how these Models were created see mtnhp.org/models

Ecology
POLLINATORS
The following animal species have been reported as pollinators of this plant species or its genus where their geographic ranges overlap: Bombus vagans, Bombus bifarius, Bombus fervidus, and Bombus terricola (Thorp et al. 1983, Colla and Dumesh 2010).

Management

References
  • Literature Cited AboveLegend:   View Online Publication
    • Colla, S.R. and S. Dumesh. 2010. The bumble bees of southern Ontario: notes on natural history and distribution. Journal of the Entomological Society of Ontario 141:39-68.
    • Lesica, P., M.T. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. Fort Worth, TX: BRIT Press. viii + 771 p.
    • Thorp, R.W., D.S. Horning, and L.L. Dunning. 1983. Bumble bees and cuckoo bumble bees of California (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Bulletin of the California Insect Survey 23:1-79.
  • Additional ReferencesLegend:   View Online Publication
    Do you know of a citation we're missing?
    • Lesica, P., M.T. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2022. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants, Second Edition. Fort Worth, TX: BRIT Press. viii + 779 p.
    • Simanonok, M. 2018. Plant-pollinator network assembly after wildfire. Ph.D. Dissertation. Bozeman, MT: Montana State University. 123 p.
    • Simanonok, M.P. and L.A. Burkle. 2019. Nesting success of wood-cavity-nesting bees declines with increasing time since wildfire. Ecology and Evolution 9:12436-12445.
  • Web Search Engines for Articles on "Field Sowthistle"
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Citation for data on this website:
Field Sowthistle — Sonchus arvensis.  Montana Field Guide.  .  Retrieved on , from