It is native to Europe and southwestern Asia, and it is widely naturalized in other regions including North America.

The flowers are yellow, produced in a capitulum 1–2 cm (0.39–0.79 in) diameter, the capitula being numerous in loose clusters at the top of the stem.

[7][8] The capitulum is surrounded by a whorl of involucral bracts, the outer ones very small and the inner ones erect, narrow and stiff and all the same length.

The numerous small seeds are retained in the cypsela until the plant is shaken by the wind or a passing animal.

[16] Lapsana communis is found growing in arable fields, woods, hedges,[6] roadsides, wasteland, hedgerows, woodland margins and clear-felled areas in forests.