Flora of New Zealand Series

field hawkweed

Stolons slender, with few to numerous long simple eglandular hairs. Rosette lvs green, narrowly oblanceolate, sessile or shortly petiolate, obscurely dentate or entire, 6-15-(20) × 1-2.5-(3) cm, usually acute, sometimes obtuse, cuneate at base, with (0)-numerous fine simple hairs 2-3 mm long above and 1-3 mm long beneath, and few to numerous stellate hairs beneath. Stem lvs 1-2-(3), small. Flowering stems erect, (10)-20-50-(80) cm tall, with numerous spreading simple eglandular hairs throughout, stellate hairs sparse or 0 below and dense above, and glandular hairs numerous above. Peduncles 0.5-2 cm long at flowering. Capitula (5)-10-20 per stem; involucre 7-8 mm long; bracts with numerous simple eglandular hairs, numerous glandular hairs, and few to numerous stellate hairs. Florets yellow, with or without red stripe on outer face, c. 2× length of involucre. Achenes dark, 1.5-2 × c. 0.5 mm. Pappus sordid, 4-5 mm long.

S.: Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago (Old Man Range).

Europe 1940

Grassland, scrub, tracksides, riverbanks, forest margins, roadsides, pasture.

FL Nov-Jan-(Mar) FT Dec-Feb-(Mar).

The green lvs, softly hairy on both surfaces, distinguish H. caespitosum from H. praealtum, the only other sp. of subgen. Pilosella with many capitula per stem and yellow ligules. H. caespitosum is sometimes referred to in N.Z. as Pilosella caespitosa and has been recorded as H. pratense and H. piloselloides.