Beaked hawksbeard

Crepis vesicaria

Family · Asteraceae · Harmless

Edible

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.

Where it grows

Fields and pasture · Roadsides and waste ground · Town and roadside · Montado

Also known as

bristly hawksbeard

In flower

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

Harmless confusion

Dandelion has one flower per stalk, and the stalk is hollow and leafless; hawksbeard branches and carries several. Both edible and both bitter.

Open sheet →

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.

Sources

Flora-On