Alpine hawkweed

Hieracium alpinum, the alpine hawkweed, is a low perennial herb in the daisy family (Asteraceae) growing to about 25 cm tall. Most leaves form a basal rosette and are lance-shaped, up to 8 cm long, entire to remotely toothed, and densely covered with long whitish hairs. The flowering stem is usually leafless and similarly hairy, bearing a single (occasionally two or three) large yellow flowerheads composed entirely of 80–120 ray florets without disc florets. The fruit is an achene crowned with a brownish pappus that aids wind dispersal. The species is widely distributed in arctic and alpine regions of Europe and has also been recorded from Greenland, growing on acidic soils in mountain grasslands, rocky tundra and snow-bed communities. It belongs to a complex of largely apomictic microspecies.