[X. californicum Greene; X. c. var. rotundifolium Widder; X. cavanillesii Schouw; X. italicum Moretti; X. pensylvanicum Wallr.; X. saccharatum Wallr.; X. stru- marium var. canadense (Mill.) Torr. & A. Gray]
(nat) Kikania
Plants 2-20 dm tall, appressed pubescent or subglabrous. Leaf blades broadly ovate to reniform, 2-8 cm long, 1.5-10 cm wide, scabrous and glandular-dotted, margins coarsely and irregularly toothed, base usually cordate, petioles 1.5-10 cm long. Heads in several to numerous short axillary inflorescences. Burs broadly cylindrical to ovoid, ellipsoid, or sometimes subglobose, (1—)1.5—3.5 cm long, covered with stout, hooked prickles, terminated by 2 straight or incurved beaks. [2n = 36.] Probably native to the New World, now a cosmopolitan weed; in Hawaii a common weed of low elevation, relatively dry, disturbed habitats on Midway Atoll and all of the main islands. Naturalized prior to 1871 (Hille- brand, 1888).— Plate 38.
Our plants are referable to var. cana-dense, which has brownish or yellowish brown burs 2-3.5 cm long, the lower portion of the prickles pubescent and glandular, and the 2 terminal beaks incurved.