Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center


Home	About NPWRC	Our Science	Staff	Employment	Contacts	Common Questions	About the Site

Western Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Dandelion Hawksbeard
Crepis runcinata (James) Torr. & Gray

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

Family: Composite (Compositae)
Flowering: June-July
Field Marks: This species has all leaves basal and leaves and stems that are smooth or sparsely hairy, but never with short, curly, matted hairs.
Habitat: Alkaline meadows.
Habit: Perennial herb with a thickened, fleshy rootstock.
Stem: Upright, smooth or sometimes hairy but not with curly, matted hairs, up to 1 1/2 feet tall, bearing only the flower heads and a few bracts; milky sap present.
Leaves: All basal, oblong to obovate, up to 10 inches long, up to 3 inches wide, rounded at the tip, tapering or abruptly contracted to the leaf stalk, smooth or somewhat hairy, but not with curly, matted hairs, toothed along the edges.
Flowers: Many borne in heads on a leafless stem, the heads up to 1 inch high, consisting entirely of ray flowers; bracts surrounding each head narrowly lanceolate, pointed at the tip, usually glandular-hairy.
Sepals: 0.
Petals: 5, orange, united to form rays 1/2-3/4 inch long.
Stamens: 5.
Pistils: Ovary inferior.
Fruits: Achenes 1/4-1/3 inch long, tapering to a short point at the tip, pale brown to dark brown, with at least 10 ribs, topped by a cluster of fine bristles.

Previous Species -- Brassbuttons (Cotula coronopifolia)
Return to Species List -- Group 8
Next Species -- Spreading Alkali-weed (Cressa truxillensis)

Accessibility FOIA Privacy Policies and Notices

U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/plants/florawe/species/8/creprunc.htm
Page Contact Information: Webmaster
Page Last Modified: Saturday, 02-Feb-2013 06:27:50 EST
Menlo Park, CA [caww55]