Austrian leopard's-bane

Doronicum austriacum, the Austrian leopard's-bane, is a perennial herb in the family Asteraceae, distributed across the mountains of central and southeastern Europe, where it grows in damp meadows, tall-herb communities and along streams in the montane and subalpine zones. From a creeping rhizome it produces erect leafy stems 50-150 cm tall, branched in the inflorescence, bearing alternate, ovate to cordate, coarsely toothed leaves that clasp the stem at their bases. Several to many bright yellow daisy-like capitula 4-6 cm across are borne in a loose corymb in summer, each with strap-shaped ray florets surrounding a yellow disc of tubular florets. The achenes carry a pappus of white bristles. The plant is occasionally grown in cottage and woodland gardens as a hardy early-summer perennial.