Flora of New Zealand Series

hawkbit

Perennial with slender to stout rootstock. Stems ascending, not branching, (2)-10-50 cm tall, glabrous or with sparse 2-fid hairs. Lvs all basal, linear to linear-oblanceolate, simple and distantly dentate to pinnatifid with triangular spreading to recurved lobes, (2)-6-16-(25) × (0.2)-0.6-1.5-(3) cm; hairs 2-(3)-fid at tip, sparse to dense. Stem bracts 0-(1). Capitula turbinate, nodding in bud. Involucral bracts linear-lanceolate, acute, glabrous or with 2-fid hairs; outer bracts c. ⅓ length of inner bracts; inner bracts (7)-10-15 mm long. Florets yellow, c. 11/2× length of involucre. Stigmas yellow. Achenes pale brown; outer achenes smooth or finely muriculate, not beaked, cylindric, 3-4 mm long, with a pappus of scales c. 0.7 mm long; inner achenes muricate, shortly beaked, fusiform, 4-5 mm long, with a pappus of 2 rows of bristles, the outer row short, simple, the inner row 5-7 mm long, plumose, widened at base.

N.: Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, East Cape, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, Manawatu, Wairarapa, Wellington; S.: throughout; St.; K., Ch., C.

Europe, W. Asia 1867

Lawns, bogs, swamps, roadsides, railway lines, sand dunes, gravel, waste land, pasture, gardens.

FL (Sep)-Nov-Apr FT (Sep)-Jan-Apr-(Jul).

The 2-fid hairs distinguish L. taraxacoides from similar spp. of Lactuceae in N.Z. Hypochoeris radicata is otherwise strikingly similar in the non-flowering state; Microseris scapigera has similar simple scapes and nodding buds, but it has scabrid pappus hairs. L. taraxacoides has also been referred to in N.Z. as Apargia hispida, L. hirtus, L. hispidus, L. nudicaulis, and Thrincia hirta.