Search Field Guide
Advanced Search
MT Gov Logo
Montana Field Guide

Montana Field Guides

Common Sowthistle - Sonchus oleraceus
Other Names:  Smooth Sow Thistle, Hare's Colwort, Swinies, Annual Sowthistle

Image Copyright and Usage Information
Non-native Species

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


Agency Status
USFWS:
USFS:
BLM:


 

External Links

 
General Description
Taprooted annual. Stems erect, 30–100 cm tall, mostly simple. Leaves lanceolate to oblanceolate, pinnately lobed to mostly entire, 5–25 cm long, winged-petiolate below, becoming sessile and auriculate above. Involucres 8–15 mm high; phyllaries glabrous or with patches of tomentum. Ray ligules 3–6 mm long, inconspicuous. Achenes brown, 2–4 mm long, bumpy between the ribs (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Species Range
Montana Range Range Descriptions

Non-native
 


Range Comments
From Eurasia but widespread across nearly all of North America.

Observations in Montana Natural Heritage Program Database
Number of Observations: 36

(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
Disturbed soil of roadsides, fields, lawns; 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 "Common Sowthistle"
Login Logout

Take us with you! PDF icon

Look for this PDF icon as you search and browse.  Click it to build a custom PDF with species shown on that page or for all the species within that taxonomic level.  To create your own list of species, use the PDF Creator tool at the bottom of the Advanced Search page.

Here's some links if you want to download a whole group.

Mammals
Birds
Reptiles
Amphibians
Fish
Invertebrates
Butterflies / Moths
Dragonflies / Damselflies
Ferns and allies
Conifers
Flowering Plants (Dicots)
Flowering Plants (Monocots)
Bryophytes
Lichens
Ecological Systems
Noxious Weeds
Citation for data on this website:
Common Sowthistle — Sonchus oleraceus.  Montana Field Guide.  .  Retrieved on , from