Lesser hawkbit
Thrincia saxatilis
Family · Asteraceae · Harmless
The small hawkbit of hard trodden soils, which makes two kinds of fruit in the same head: some with a plume to fly and others without, which stay where they are.
Fields and pasture · Walls and rocks · Dunes and sand · Roadsides and waste ground
Also known ashairy hawkbit, rock leontodon
How to tell it
A small rosette of cut leaves with rough two or three-pointed hairs. A leafless stem, solid when squeezed, with a single yellow head that closes in rain. The central fruits have a hair plume and the marginal ones do not, clearly seen on a ripe head and the genus's mark.
What it is confused with
Rough hawkbit
Thrincia hispida
They are in the same genus and very close. The rough one is larger and hairier, the rock one is small and from harder drier places. Neither is dangerous, and the distinction is one for a botanical key.
What it is for
No use
The two-fruit strategy is worth telling: the ones that fly look for a new place, the ones that stay make sure the place that already works is not lost. It is betting on both sides at once.
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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