Common andryala

Andryala integrifolia, the common andryala, is an annual to short-lived perennial herb of the Asteraceae family, tribe Cichorieae, native to the Mediterranean basin, especially the Iberian peninsula, France, Italy, and North Africa. The whole plant is conspicuously clothed in soft, woolly, often yellowish-grey, glandular hairs that give it a felted appearance. Erect, branching stems thirty to seventy centimetres tall rise from a basal rosette of oblong-lanceolate, entire to shallowly toothed, soft grey-green leaves five to fifteen centimetres long. From late spring through summer the stems carry loose, flat-topped corymbs of small, dandelion-like flowerheads of pure yellow ligulate florets, the involucres densely covered in spreading glandular hairs. The achenes are short, ribbed, and tipped with a single ring of dirty-white plumose pappus. The plant favours dry, sandy or gravelly disturbed ground in full sun.