Narrow-leaf hawk's-beard

Crepis tectorum, the narrow-leaf hawk's-beard, is an annual or biennial herb in the family Asteraceae native to Europe and temperate Asia and widely naturalized across North America as a weed of arable land, roadsides, and waste ground. Plants are erect, 30-80 cm tall, with branched upper stems arising from a slender taproot and a basal rosette of leaves. Basal leaves are lanceolate to oblanceolate, 5-15 cm long, deeply pinnately lobed to runcinate, with narrow backward-pointing lobes; stem leaves are progressively smaller, sessile, linear-lanceolate with revolute margins and clasping arrow-shaped bases. The inflorescence is a loose corymb of numerous small ligulate flower heads 12-18 mm across, each composed of 30-70 bright yellow ray florets; the involucre is cylindrical-campanulate with grey-pubescent outer bracts and inner bracts grooved on the back. Flowering occurs from June to September. Fruits are small dark brown ribbed achenes 3-4 mm long crowned with a white capillary pappus. The species favors dry sandy or gravelly soils in disturbed habitats from lowland to montane elevations.