Umbrella milkwort
Tolpis barbata
Family · Asteraceae · Harmless
The yellow daisy with a nearly black dark brown centre, ringed by long fine bracts sticking out like rays. There is nothing else like it in a dry field.
Where it grows
Fields and pasture · Pine woods · Roadsides and waste ground · Dunes and sand
Also known asbarbed tolpis
In flower
How to tell it
A yellow head with a very distinct dark brown or purple central disc, which is the mark. Beneath, a ring of extremely fine long outer bracts pointing outward, like a beard. A slender branched stem, with white latex when cut. Cut basal leaves in a rosette.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
No use. It is excellent for learning: it shows that what separates yellow daisies from one another is not the flower but the set of bracts beneath it.