Xanthium orientale

Erect, usually branched annual herb to 2 m high; stems scabrous, unarmed, green or purplish. Leaves broad-ovate to triangular in outline, mostly 4–15 cm long and wide, 3- or 5-lobed, surfaces green and scabrous, lobe apices rounded to acute, base cordate, margins coarsely and irregularly toothed; petiole to c. 12 cm long. Male capitula 0–7, 5–8 mm diam.; involucral bracts ovate, 1–3 mm long; florets c. as long as involucre, pubescent. Female capitula 1–15 in axils below males; fruiting involucre ellipsoid, 4–7 mm diam., 1.5–2.5 cm long, pubescent with mixed glandular and eglandular hairs; hooked spines 3–5 mm long, pubescent in lower half, brown to purplish; beaks broad-based, 4–6 mm long, divergent, incurved and hooked. Cypselas 1–1.5 cm long. Flowers Dec.–Mar.