Vulgaris: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora leading to this species.  annual plants; NOT [perennial plants, usually with rootstocks] plants branching; NOT [plants with few branches] stems and leaves not glandular; NOT [stems and leaves densely glandular pubescent] flower heads few to many; NOT [flower heads solitary] flower heads discoid; NOT [flower heads radiate]

 

Senecio: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus. juice watery; NOT [juice milky] (FOA) leaves alternate or basal; NOT [leaves opposite] (FOA) involucral bracts uniseriate, equal, narrow, commonly with a few much shorter outer ones at the base; NOT [involucral bracts either imbricate in several series, or broad and somewhat leafy, or both] (FOA) involucral bracts not or scarcely imbricated; NOT [involucral bracts well imbricated] (BF) receptacle naked (FOA) flower heads with florets both tubular and ray (radiate) (BF) ligulate flowers pistillate or neuter; NOT [flowers all perfect] (FOA) rays yellow; NOT [rays white, to pink, purple or blue] (FOA) stamens united to form a tube around the pistil (BF) pappus single, bristles sometimes unequal but not distinctly divided into an inner and outer series of two lengths; NOT [pappus double, bristles of the outer series inconspicuous, distinctly shorter than the inner] (FOA) pappus wholly or partly of capillary bristles, sometimes plumose; NOT [pappus chaffy, or of scales, or of firm awns, or a crown or none] (FOA)