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Leontodon biscutellifolius

Interesting Facts

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Description

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Family Compositae

The largest family of flowering plants , the Compositae (Asteraceae), comprising about 1,100 genera and more than 20,000 species and characterized by many small flowers arranged in a head looking like a single flower and subtended by an involucre of bracts. A head may consist of both ray flowers and disk flowers, as in the sunflower, of disk flowers only, as in the burdock, or of ray flowers only, as in the dandelion.

Tribe Lactuceae

The Lactuceae are a tribe of closely related genera of the sunflower family that are easily recognized because the flowering heads are composed of wholly of ligulate florets that are usually 5-lobed. Another very distinguishing feature is the milky sap . Although not apparent without magnification, the pollen is distinctive in that the spines are more or less restricted to discrete ridges or flanges on the surface of the grain. In other members of the family the spines are distributed more or less evenly over the surface of the pollen grain . The pappus usually consists of scales or stiff hairs . -- Gerald D. Carr.

Genus Leontodon

Annuals or perennials , 10-80 cm; fibrous-rooted, sometimes tuberous , or with short caudices. Stems 1-20+, simple and scapiform or sparingly branched, glabrous , tomentulose , or coarsely hirsute . Leaves basal; petiolate (petioles winged ). blades oblanceolate , margins entire or dentate or deeply lobed (faces glabrous or hispid , hairs simple or minutely 2-3-fid). Heads borne singly or 2-5 in loose , corymbiform arrays. Peduncles slightly inflated , naked or minutely bracteate . Calyculi of 10-20, subulate to lanceolate bractlets in 1-2 series (unequal), glabrous, tomentulose, or hirsute. Involucres campanulate , 4-15 mm diam. Phyllaries 16-20 in 2+ series, narrowly lanceolate, subequal , glabrous, tomentulose, or hirsute. Receptacles convex , pitted , sometimes slightly villous , epaleate. Florets 20-30; corollas yellow to orange (outer sometimes with reddish or greenish stripes ). Cypselae light to dark brown or reddish brown. fusiform or cylindric , curved , distally narrowed and not beaked , or beaked, ribs 10-14, faces muricate , glabrous; pappi of ± distinct , yellowish white, tan, or pale brown bristles in 1-2 series (all uniformly plumose or outer reduced; pappi of outer cypselae sometimes reduced to crowns of bristlelike scales ). x = 4, 6, 7.

Species ca. 50: introduced ; Europe, n North Africa, Mediterranean, w Asia.

Leontodon is recognized by the basal rosettes of pinnatifid leaves, scapiform stems, loosely imbricate phyllaries, yellow corollas, and plumose pappus bristles. Some species are somewhat doubtfully distinguished by an overlapping mixture of vestiture and pappus characters.[1]

Taxonomy

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Similar Species

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Members of the genus Leontodon

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 11 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

L. autumnalis (Autumn Hawkbit) · L. autumnalis pratensis (Fall Dandelion) · L. hipidus (Bristly Hawkbit) · L. hirtus (Rough Hawkbit) · L. hispidus (Bristly Hawkbit) · L. hispidus danubialis (Bristly Hawkbit) · L. hispidus hispidus (Bristly Hawkbit) · L. pratensis (Fall Dandelion) · L. taraxacoides (Hairy Hawkbit) · L. taraxacoides longirostris (Lesser Hawkbit) · L. taraxacoides taraxacoides (Lesser Hawkbit)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal December 06, 2007:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. David J. Bogler "Leontodon". in Flora of North America Vol. 19, 20 and 21 Page 215, 217, 240, 294, 298. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 2012-07-23