Flora of New Zealand Series

hawksbeard

Annual or biennial. Stems erect, branching, ribbed or grooved, (5)-15-45- (100) cm tall; hairs white, slender, crinkly; stouter pale crinkly hairs usually present also, at least below. Rosette and lower stem lvs thin, petiolate, oblanceolate to linear-oblanceolate, dentate to runcinate-pinnatifid, (2)-5-20-(30) × (0.3)-1-3-(6) cm, often glabrous or with pale hairs c. 0.5 mm long confined to middle of lf beneath or rarely distributed on both lf surfaces. Upper stem lvs similar, becoming sessile and not lobed, narrowly triangular to linear, usually with narrowly triangular teeth especially at subauriculate base. Capitula campanulate; buds erect. Involucral bracts with sparse to dense short white tangled hairs and usually sparse dark glandular hairs on outer surface, glabrous on inner surface; outer bracts 6-10, linear, ?-1/2length of inner bracts; inner bracts linear, not keeled, 5-8 mm long, with pale to scarious ± glabrous margins. Receptacle areoles with flat or depressed, glabrous margins. Corolla yellow, often with pink or red stripe on outer face of ligule. Achenes brown, 10-ribbed, fusiform, smooth or ± scabrid, not beaked, 2-2.5 mm long. Pappus bristles in 2 rows, fine, white.

N.: throughout; S.: throughout; St.; K., Ch.

S. and C. Europe 1867

Gardens, roadsides, waste land, lakeshores, pasture, lawns, swamps, coastal sand and cliffs, stream beds, river flats, tussock grassland, scrub.

Large forms of C. capillaris may resemble C. vesicaria, but can be distinguished by their thin lvs with usually at least the margins glabrous, bracts glabrous on the inner surface, glabrous receptacle and smaller achenes without beaks. In C. capillaris the pappus does not overtop the involucral bracts in the fruiting capitulum, and capitula are generally smaller than those of C. vesicaria. C. capillaris has also been referred to in N.Z. as C. virens.