Common hawkweed

Hieracium lachenalii, the common hawkweed, is a perennial herb in the family Asteraceae belonging to the taxonomically complex apomictic genus Hieracium. Plant height varies greatly with site quality, ranging from about 10 cm to as much as 90 cm. It forms a basal rosette of broadly elliptic leaves up to roughly 12 cm long, tapering to the base and with shallowly toothed margins. Erect, sparsely leafy flowering stems carry branched, corymb-like clusters of small dandelion-like heads, each 1.5–2 cm across and composed entirely of 40–80 pale yellow ligulate ray florets without disc florets. The fruit is a small dark-brown ribbed achene with a pappus of fine bristles. Native to most of Europe, it favours dry to mesic open woodland, grassy banks, road verges and disturbed sites, and has become established as an introduced species in parts of temperate North America and Australia. No significant medicinal or culinary tradition is recorded for the species.