Hairy hawkbit

Leontodon saxatilis, the lesser hawkbit or hairy hawkbit, is a small dandelion-like perennial in the family Asteraceae. It forms a flat basal rosette of green leaves 2–15 cm long and 0.5–2.5 cm wide, either entire-margined or shallowly to deeply lobed and sparsely covered with stiff forked hairs. From this rosette arise patches of leafless, slightly hairy flowering stems each terminated by a single yellow capitulum composed only of ligulate ray florets with toothed tips, the disc florets absent. The cylindrical achenes carry a pappus of scales; those near the centre of the head are roughened, while marginal ones are smooth. Native to Europe and North Africa, it grows in dry grasslands, lawns, pastures and disturbed places on a wide range of soils, and is now established worldwide as an introduced species, sometimes treated as a noxious weed. The young leaves have been eaten as a wild salad green, but the plant has no significant herbal tradition.