Pentanema hirtum

Pentanema hirtum, formerly known as Inula hirta and commonly called the hairy elecampane, is a perennial herb in the family Asteraceae native to central and southeastern Europe, extending east into the Caucasus and western Siberia, where it grows on dry calcareous grasslands, steppes, scrub margins and open oak woodland. It grows from a stout rhizome, producing erect, simple or sparingly branched stems 15 to 50 centimetres tall that are densely clothed in spreading, stiff, often glandular hairs. The leaves are alternate, sessile, oblong-lanceolate to elliptic, 3 to 10 centimetres long, with entire to slightly toothed margins and a rough hairy surface on both sides. From early to midsummer the stems bear one to a few solitary terminal flower heads 3 to 5 centimetres across, each with numerous bright golden-yellow ray florets surrounding a slightly darker disc of tubular florets. The involucral bracts are linear-lanceolate, hairy and ciliate. The fruit is a cylindrical achene topped by a single ring of brownish pappus bristles.