Perennials, 10-60 cm. Stems 1-6. usually simple, scapiform, sometimes branched, glabrous or bristly hispid. Leaves: blades oblanceolate, 6-30 × 0.5-4 cm, margins coarsely dentate to deeply lobed (lobes straight, often narrowly triangular, terminal lobes usually large), faces usually coarsely hispid or hirsute, hairs often 2-3-fid. Heads usually borne singly. Peduncles ebracteate. Calyculi of 10-12, subulate bractlets 1-3 mm, glabrous or densely hirsute. Involucres campanulate, 7-13 × 10-15 mm. Phyllaries 12-16, linear-lanceolate, 6-10 mm, subequal, glabrate to coarsely hispid or hirsute. Florets 30-50+; corollas bright yellow or outermost orange or reddish, 12-15 mm. Cypselae fusiform, 6-12 mm (sometimes narrowed distally and weakly beaked); pappi pale brown, mixed: outer series of bristlelike scales, inner of plumose bristles. 2n = 14.
Flowering Mar-Sep. Fields, lawns, gardens, roadsides; 100-1800 m; introduced; Ont.; Conn., Ga., Kans., N.Y., Ohio, Pa.; Europe.
Leontodon hispidus has been reported in eastern North America. It is recognized by the solitary heads, coarsely hispid leaves and peduncles, and pappi with long plumose and short non-plumose bristles. It is often confused with L. saxatilis, in which the pappi of the outermost cypselae are reduced to crowns. Leontodon hirtus Linnaeus has been reported from various locations in North America; the specimens appear to be assignable to L. hispidus Linnaeus.
Fibrous-rooted perennial 1-6 dm, hairy or glabrous, the scape simple and ordinarily naked; basal lvs oblanceolate, 2-25 cm נ6-30 mm, pinnately lobed or subentire; invol imbricate, 10-15 cm, or to 2 cm in fr; achenes 6-12 mm, fusiform, sometimes ±beaked, scabrous; pappus of plumose bristles and some shorter, outer, slender scales or barbellate bristles; 2n=14. Fields, meadows, and waste places; native of Europe, occasionally found in our range from Conn. and R.I. to Pa., Ont., and O. May-Sept. (Apargia h.; Leontodon hastilis)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
