Aerial stems usually leafy only near bases, openly branched. Leaves: petioles winged; blades 3-nerved, 3-25 cm. Phyllaries 5-6(-10), 1-2 mm. Peripheral florets: corollas soon falling, 0.5-1.2 mm. Inner florets: corollas tardily falling, 1-2.3 mm. Cypselae 5-9 mm. 2n = 46. Flowering Jun-Oct. Woods, forests, usually in shade; 0-2000 m; Alta., B.C., Ont.; Calif., Idaho, Mich., Minn., Mont., Oreg., S.Dak., Wash., Wis., Wyo. Adenocaulon bicolor is a common forest herb from southwestern Canada to central California. It is disjunct in the Black Hills (eastern Wyoming, western South Dakota) and the Great Lakes region (southern Ontario, northern Michigan). Reports of the species from Minnesota and Wisconsin are unverified.
Fibrous-rooted slender perennial to 1 m; lvs mostly near the base, long-petiolate, large and thin, deltoid-ovate to cordate or subreniform, 3-15 cm wide, essentially glabrous above, closely white-woolly beneath, entire to more often coarsely toothed or shallowly lobed; invol bracts 2 mm or less, reflexed in fr and eventually deciduous; achenes clavate, 5-8 mm; 2n=46. Moist, shady woods; n. Minn. and n. Mich.; s. B.C. to Calif. and Mont. May-Aug.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.