ROUGH HAWKBIT

Leontodon hispidus

Daisy & Dandelion Family [Asteraceae]

Flowers:
month8may month8jun month8june month8jul month8july month8aug month8sep month8sept month8oct

Pappus: pappusZpossible (fawn, simple)
pappus8aug pappus8sep pappus8sept pappus8oct pappus8nov pappus8dec

status
statusZnative
 
flower
flower8yellow
 
inner
inner8red
 
morph
morph8actino
 
petals
petalsZMany
 
stem
stem8round
 
stem
stem8ribbed
 
stem
stem8milkysap stem8milkylatex
 
smell
smell8fragrant
fragrant

29th June 2009, ex-alkali works, Nob End SSSI, Ringley. Photo: © RWD
Grows in limey soils, as here in the grounds of an ex-industrial works where many toxic industrial processes occurred here over the decades, the last being an alkali waste process.


29th June 2009, ex-alkali works, Nob End SSSI, Ringley. Photo: © RWD
Spread over all you can survey.


29th June 2009, ex-alkali works, Nob End SSSI, Ringley. Photo: © RWD
The florets are golden yellow and the outer florets are often tinged red near the ends, especially on the undersides.


29th June 2009, ex-alkali works, Nob End SSSI, Ringley. Photo: © RWD
Both bracts and un-branched stem are hairy, the bracts with longer shaggier hairs.


26th June 2019, flanks of Great Orme, Llandudno, North Wales. Photo: © RWD
The flowerhead with many 5-toothed (= 5 florets) petals.


29th June 2009, ex-alkali works, Nob End SSSI, Ringley. Photo: © RWD
Unlike Lesser Hawkweed, which has shorter hairs covering just the bracts and not the stem, the hairs on Rough Hawkbit are very shaggy. The stems, which unlike those of Cat's-ears, are un-branched and usually have deep grooves aka raised ridges on it. The hairs are longer on the bracts of the flower-head. The stem swells as it nears the flowerhead.


26th June 2019, flanks of Great Orme, Llandudno, North Wales. Photo: © RWD
A double-header reminds your Author of train spotting in the 50's when you were delighted to see a steam-powered double header of locomotives at the front pulling 13 or more coaches.


26th June 2019, flanks of Great Orme, Llandudno, North Wales. Photo: © RWD
The blackish phyllaries are of differing lengths and hairy.


29th June 2009, ex-alkali works, Nob End SSSI, Ringley. Photo: © RWD
The hairs of both this (and of the similar Lesser Hawkbit) have some hairs which are forked near their ends, as shown by the red arrows which are flying in formation here today. The reader might also spot some more possibly forked or stellate hairs.


26th June 2019, flanks of Great Orme, Llandudno, North Wales. Photo: © RWD
The 'shaving brush' of the as-yet unopened seed-carrying pappus head.


26th June 2019, flanks of Great Orme, Llandudno, North Wales. Photo: © RWD
The black hairs on the black parts of the phyllaries seem more robust than the white hairs on the green parts.


29th June 2009, ex-alkali works, Nob End SSSI, Ringley. Photo: © RWD
The seed head is a pappus consisting of simple parachute hairs ('simple' means directly attached to the top of the seeds and not first to a stalk which joins the seed). The pappus is off-white; a fawny brown.


29th June 2009, ex-alkali works, Nob End SSSI, Ringley. Photo: © RWD
The seeds are brown, long, widening first part way along before tapering down to the pedestal at the top where the parachute hairs are attached.


29th June 2009, ex-alkali works, Nob End SSSI, Ringley. Photo: © RWD
The seeds are shaped like a miniature but slightly-curved baseball bat. (If they are straight then the seeds are not of Rough Hawkbit). The parachute hairs have short feathery hairs attached herringbone fashion so as to catch the wind and sail off.


29th June 2009, ex-alkali works, Nob End SSSI, Ringley. Photo: © RWD
The leaves, un-like those of Lesser Hawkweed, do not lie flattish along the ground but instead stand up off the ground, often nearly erect. [The 2 round leaves middle foreground belong to a different plant].


29th June 2009, ex-alkali works, Nob End SSSI, Ringley. Photo: © RWD
Leaves have sinuous to dentate teeth and are long and narrow(ish). Reminiscent, perhaps, of those sinuous aluminium tent-pegs which are sometimes supplied with tents.


29th June 2009, ex-alkali works, Nob End SSSI, Ringley. Photo: © RWD
The leaves are also hairy, but shorter than those on the flower bracts.


29th June 2009, ex-alkali works, Nob End SSSI, Ringley. Photo: © RWD
Hairs especially noticeable near the leaf edges. The hairs often being trifid (3-star) at the ends (that said, your Author cannot spot any trifid hairs here but maybe the photographs are just not sharp enough to resolve them; some do look 'blobby' near the ends).


26th June 2019, flanks of Great Orme, Llandudno, North Wales. Photo: © RWD
The double header has a double stem too which gradually merges into one stem much further down. The white hairs on the stem are here sparse, but...


26th June 2019, flanks of Great Orme, Llandudno, North Wales. Photo: © RWD
... but when you look close, there are another set of far shorter white hairs on the ridges of the stem. Because they are very short hairs, they feel rough to the touch as you ply your fingers up and down the stem. Hence the common name of the flower: ROUGH Hawkbit.


Not to be semantically confused with : Rough Hawk's-beard (Crepis biennis) Hawksbeards (Crepis) nor with Hawkweeds (Picris) [plants with similar names in differing genera but all are within the same Asteraceae family]

Some similarities to : Cat's-ears (Hypochaeris) which have similar leaves but with usually wider gaps between the teeth. They are told apart from the differing lengths of bracts around the lower part of the flower on Cat's-ears (which are all the same full-length on Hawbits), the abrupt change in diameter from stem to flower on Cat's-ears (the stem gradually merges with the flower on Hawkbits) and the cockscombe on Cat's-ears - where the ending of each bract is finely divided into a tiny comb, and the much more pronounced scales (short flaps) on the stems of Cat's-ears (smaller and fewer on Hawkbits).

Some resemblance to : Hawkweeds (Hieracium) but these are usually branched, as are some Hawksbeards (Crepis) whereas Hawkbits (Leontodon) and Cat's-ears (Hypochaeris) are not branched.

Lesser Hawkbit is most reliably differentiated from Rough Hawkbit by close observation of the seed-clock: the inner seeds of Lesser Hawkbit have long hairs but the outer circle of the seeds are capped by a slightly-splayed collar of paler-brown short chaffy scales.

The broken stems bleed a bluish-white latex.


  Leontodon hispidus  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Asteraceae  

Distribution
 family8Daisy & Dandelion family8Asteraceae
 BSBI maps
genus8Leontodon
Leontodon
(Hawkbits)

ROUGH HAWKBIT

Leontodon hispidus

Daisy & Dandelion Family [Asteraceae]