Flower:

A single flower is at the end of a long naked stalk that arises from the whorl of leaves about midway up the plant. Individual flowers are ¾ to 1 inch across with 5 pointed, hairy, greenish white, petal-like sepals and numerous yellowish stamens around a bulbous green center. One plant has 2 to 8 flowers.

Leaves:

There are basal leaves, a whorl of 3 to 5 leaves about midway up the stem, and sometimes a pair of leaves on the lower part of some flower stalks, all of similar shape, palmately compound in groups of 3. The basal leaves have long stems and are a little larger than the stem leaves; any leaves on the flower stalk are much smaller. Leaflets are deeply lobed in 3 to 5 parts, toothless, hairy, to 2½ inches long; the outer lobes are toothed on the tip half and somewhat oval.

Fruit:

The flower cone elongates up to about 1 inch. Fruit is a tiny brown seed attached to cottony fluff. The cottony cone persists through winter.

Notes:

Tall Thimbleweed is easily confused with Thimbleweed. The best way I've found to tell them apart is by the shape of the leaves. Thimbleweed leaflets are wedge-shaped at the base with the lobes fanning out. The outer lobes of Tall Thimbleweed leaflets are more rounded with teeth along the tip half. Thimbleweed also rarely grows taller than 2 feet, where Tall Thimbleweed can reach nearly twice that.