Hieracium glaucinum

Hieracium glaucinum, the early hawkweed, is a perennial herb in the family Asteraceae native to central and western Europe, including parts of Britain, France, Germany, the Alps, and the Carpathians, where it grows on dry calcareous grassland, rocky slopes, scree, open scrub, and disturbed limestone ground. The species belongs to the highly polymorphic Hieracium murorum / glaucinum group, in which apomixis (asexual seed formation) has produced many microspecies treated by some authors as distinct. The plant produces a basal rosette of leaves, with a glaucous bluish-green colour from which the specific name is derived; the leaves are oblong-ovate to elliptic-lanceolate, 5-15 cm long, with entire to weakly toothed margins and a narrowed petiolate base. The stem is erect, 20-60 cm tall, often reddish at the base, sparsely leafy or leafless, and bears stellate or simple hairs in the upper part. The inflorescence is a loose corymb of 2-8 flower heads, each 2-3 cm across, with bright yellow ligulate ray florets only and no disc florets, the involucre cylindrical-ovoid and clothed in dark glandular hairs. The achenes are short and bear a dirty-white pappus of fine bristles.