Hawkbit

Leontodon tuberosus L. (Asteraceae), tuberous hawkbit, is a rosette-forming perennial herb of the Mediterranean Basin, native from Portugal and Morocco east through southern France, Italy and the Balkans to Turkey, Cyprus and the Levant, and southwards across North Africa. Plants arise from a vertical rootstock bearing one to several characteristically swollen, tuberous fusiform roots that distinguish it from related species. The basal rosette of leaves is oblanceolate to narrowly obovate, 4-15 cm long, with shallowly toothed to pinnately lobed margins and sparse forked T-shaped hairs giving a roughish texture. One to several leafless erect scapes 10-40 cm tall arise from the rosette, each terminated by a single solitary head 2-3 cm across with bright yellow strap-shaped ligulate florets, the outer ones often streaked greyish on the back. The involucre is hairy and shorter than the florets. The cypsela is curved and ribbed and bears a pappus of feathery off-white bristles.