Beaked hawksbeard
Crepis vesicaria
Family · Asteraceae · Harmless
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The yellow composite that covers verges and pastures in spring and is, among dozens of similar yellows, one of the edible ones. In Spain almirón leaves are a traditionally gathered vegetable.
Fields and pasture · Roadsides and waste ground · Town and roadside · Montado
Also known asbristly hawksbeard
How to tell it
A rosette of leaves cut into backward-pointing lobes, rough with hairs. A branched stem with several yellow heads. The outer bracts of the head are short and spread outwards, which separates this genus from the sowthistles.
What it is confused with
Dandelion
Taraxacum officinale
Dandelion has one flower per stalk, and the stalk is hollow and leafless; hawksbeard branches and carries several. Both edible and both bitter.
What it is for
Young rosette leaves eaten cooked or in salad, bitter, especially in Andalusia and Extremadura. Gathered before the plant bolts, which is when they become inedible.
Traditionally used as food. This is not permission to eat it.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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