Hedypnois rhagadioloides, the Cretanweed or scaly hawkbit, is a species of plant in the tribe Cichorieae within the family Asteraceae. It is native to the Mediterranean Region and neighboring areas from Canary Islands to Iran, and naturalized in Australia and in parts of the Americas (southwestern United States, Baja California in Mexico, central Chile).

Hedypnois rhagadioloides is a variably hairy/hispid annual herb with flower stalks up to 40 centimeter (16 inches) stall, most of the leaves gathered around the base resembling the common dandelion except for the bristles. Leaves are green or purplish, up to 18 centimeters (7.2 inches) long. The plant produces a flower stalk with one single flower head or a flat-topped array of several heads. The head has rows of phyllaries that may be very bristly, and the head is egg-shaped when still closed. Each head contains 8-30 yellow ray flowers but no disc flowers.

Hedypnois rhagadioloides

References

External links

photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, collected in Macedonia

Tela Botanica in French with photos and French distribution map

On-line Flora of Malta many photos

Flora Silvestre, Hedypnois rhagadioloides (L.) Schmidt

Jepson Manual Treatment

Plants described in 1753

Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus

Cichorieae

Flora of Malta

Hedypnois rhagadioloides