Beaked Hawksbeard

Native to the Mediterranean region of western Europe, Crepis vesicaria is recognized by its annual or biennial habit, pinnately lobed leaves, reflexed calyculi, tomentose and glandular phyllaries, and slender, long-beaked inner cypselae. It is polymorphic; subspecies are recognized in Europe. E. B. Babcock (1947) identified the North American plants as subsp. taraxaciflora (Thuiller) Thellung, which some Europeans (T. G. Tutin et al. 1964–1980, vol. 4) have listed as a synonym of subsp. haenseleri (Boissier ex de Candolle) P. D. Sell.

Annuals, biennials, or perennials, 3–120 cm (taproots slender to thick, caudices swollen). Stems 1, erect to arcuate or decumbent (green or purple proximally), usually much branched, glabrate to hispid and/or tomentose, sometimes sparsely setose (setae black). Leaves basal and cauline; petiolate (bases clasping); blades oblanceolate to ovate, often runcinate, 10–35 × 2–8 cm, margins pinnately lobed to toothed (terminal lobes relatively large), apices obtuse or acute, faces usually hirsute (hairs sometimes only on veins) or glabrous (cauline sessile, bases auriculate, clasping, margins ± toothed). Heads 10–20, in lax, corymbiform arrays. Calyculi of 5–12, ovate to linear-lanceolate, glabrous bractlets 3–4 mm (reflexed in fruit, scarious). Involucres cylindro-campanulate (becoming turbinate or urceolate in fruit), 5–14 × 5–6 mm. Phyllaries 7–16, (reflexed at maturity) lanceolate, 10–12 mm, (margins green to yellowish), apices obtuse or acute (ciliate), abaxial faces tomentose and often stipitate-glandular, adaxial with fine, appressed hairs. Florets 50–70; corollas yellow (reddish abaxially), 6–15 mm. Cypselae (monomorphic or dimorphic) pale brown or yellowish, fusiform, 4–9 mm, outer wider with apices attenuate (not beaked), inner gradually tapered, beaked (beaks 2–5 mm, ± equal to bodies), ribs 10 (narrow); pappi white (fine, soft), 3–6 mm. 2n = 8, 16.

Crepis vesicaria is a European species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae with the common name beaked hawk's-beard. It is native to the Western and Southern Europe from Ireland and Portugal east as far as Germany, Austria, and Greece. It became naturalized in scattered locations in North America.

Crepis vesicaria is an annual, biennial, or perennial herb up to 120 cm (48 inches or 4 feet) tall, producing a large underground caudex. Each plant can have as many as 20 flower heads, each with up to 70 ray florets but no disc florets. It grows on hillsides and in sandy clearings.

A prominent plant, Crepis vesicaria stands erect, with many branches, each ending in its own dandelion-like flower.

The underside of the flower has two layers of leaf-like phyllaries. The inner layer is longer and pointed, and often curls back away from the rest of the flower head. The outer layer is substantially shorter.