Extremely tall flower stalks, with yellow blooms and very large, wooly, white-veined leaves growing along the sides of the plant in a spiral formation (which is much more visible in the immature year before the flower stalk is produced). These five-petaled yellow blooms are clustered in a long cylinder shape, giving the appearance of an elongated corncob at the tip of the plant. Immature plants are much smaller than mature plants, and may be anywhere from over a foot wide to only a few inches wide and tall. Mature plants die after blooming, leaving the skeleton of the incredibly tall stalk behind, which can sometimes last for years before falling down. A common weed in abandoned lots and fields, or anywhere with dry and sandy enough soil.