Bachelor’s Button

Growth Habit

Bachelor’s button is an annual or winter annual, covered in grayish hairs, growing to around 3-4 feet tall (1.2 meters). Flowers can vary in color from white to purple to blue.

Leaves

Leaves are narrow, generally with smooth leaf edges, though lower leaves are occasionally toothed or lobed along the margins. Leaves at the base 1.2-3.9 inches (3–10 cm) long, stem leaves usually not much smaller except among the flowerheads.

Flowers

Flowerheads are greater than 1 inch in diameter with bracts at the base, having lacerated, fringed margins (teeth around 1 mm). Flowers are typically blue, though can also be purple, pink, red, or white. Marginal flowers in the flowerhead have enlarged, irregular corollas, somewhat bell-shaped.

Fruit & Seeds

Seeds (cypselae) are straw or pale blue in color, 4-5 mm long, finely hairy with bristles attached to one end that are 2-4mm long.

Habitat

Bachelor's button has naturalized over much of the United States, escaping cultivation as an ornamental and can be found in a variety of habitats including grasslands, woodlands, forests, roadsides and other disturbed sites.

Spread Mechanisms

Reproduction

Bachelor's button reproduces by seed.

Mechanical