These common weedy plants are considered to have a largely western origin in prairies of the Great Plains, but they appear to have spread east after forest clearance (F, Cr). The earliest verified Ky. records date from 1930-50, especially in JEFF (DHL). There has probably been some intergradation with typical hirta, and now there is frequent confusion by botanists; see also notes under bicolor. These closely related taxa in the "hirta complex" are also sometimes confused with the "fulgida complex" but differ as follows (F, Cr, Y): plants usually taprooted annuals or biennials (versus perennial, often with stoloniferous offsets); stems and leaves more or less densely hairy with relatively long spreading whitish hairs (versus densely to sparsely hairy, usually without long spreading whitish hairs); cauline leaves often more broad-based, with winged petiole or subsessile to clasping; apices of pales densely fringed with spreading bristly whitish hairs (versus glabrous or with short pectinate hairs); stigma lobes elongated and more or less sharply pointed (versus short and rounded to bluntly pointed); pappus absent (versus present).