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Bearsfoot is by far the easiest of the summer yellow composites to identify. The leaves are huge, and I mean huge! They're about a foot long and 8-10" wide - no other yellow composite in our area comes close, and this feature alone is enough to identify it when compared to the other yellow composites here. The leaves also have deep sinuses (indentations)-usually two, sometimes four- that give the leaf the appearance of a big footprint. It isn't hard to understand how they got their common name.

The plant grows very tall, easily 12 feet. All parts of the plant are smooth - except that the uppermost stalks just below the flowers might be a bit sticky, with some fine hairs. There are no basal leaves - all leaves are on the main stem and opposite to each other, and have very long , winged petioles (leafstalks, with "wings" - a narrow bit of leaf that extends up and down the edges of the leafstalk). The leaves are smooth on the underside, rough to the touch on the upper surface. The flowers are small but plentiful. Each flower is about 2" across. There are 7-11 rays. Notice that each "ray" is about as long as the central "disc" is wide. In proportion, the rays appear short and blunt. Each ray also has two small notches at its tip.

This plant usually grows in wettish, sunny low spots of the foothills - but you can find it growing in vast swathes around Craven Gap on the Parkway (around milepost 378), at an elevation of 3500 feet. They bloom from mid to late summer.