European umbrella milkwort

Tolpis barbata, the European umbrella milkwort or yellow hawkweed, is a slender annual herb in the Asteraceae native to the western Mediterranean basin, including Iberia, the Maghreb, southern France, Italy, and the Macaronesian islands. It grows 20-60 cm tall on wiry, sparingly branched stems arising from a basal rosette of narrow, toothed, lanceolate leaves 3-10 cm long. The capitula are solitary or in loose corymbs and are immediately recognisable: pale lemon-yellow ligulate florets surround a darker purplish-brown disc, and the involucre bears characteristic long, filiform, spreading outer bracts that give the genus its name. Each head is 1.5-2.5 cm across. Achenes are small, ribbed, and topped with a short pappus of bristles. The plant flowers from spring to early summer in open sandy or stony ground, fallows, and disturbed Mediterranean scrub, and self-sows freely.