Dandelion-like Plants

Yellow Dandelion-like Flowers

Dandelion Family - Asteraceae

See also dandelion-like plants with pink or blue flowers.

Yellow Salsify Tragopogon dubius

Native throughout most of Europe eastwards through the Middle East to Central Asia. Main stem noticeably thickened at the top beneath the seedhead.


Habit	Flowerhead	Inner florets

Leaves	Leaf detail	Seedhead

Prickly Lettuce Lactuca serriola

Native throughout much of Eurasia and northern Africa. Leaves are quite tough and with a greyish bloom on them, like those of cabbages. The underside of the leaf has a row of soft spines along the midrib. Flowerheads are small, typically 1.5-2.5cm across, but carried in quantity on many-branched, flowering spikes. Stems to 120cm in height.


Flowerhead	Leaf	Unlobed leaves	Lobed leaves

Leaf spines on midrib	Seedhead	Fruits

Least Lettuce Lactuca saligna

Native throughout most of Europe (except the North), the Mediterranean and Middle East. A narrow, upright plant to 30-100cm in height with slender stems that can make it hard to spot amongst other vegetation. Lower leaves deeply dissected, upper leaves very narrow with pointed lobes at their base. Flowers arranged in a single spike at the top of the stem.


Flowerheads	Flowerheads	Flowerhead	Phyllaries

Lower leaf	Upper leaf	Slender stems	Seedhead

Prickly Sow-thistle Sonchus asper

Widespread and common as a weed of urban and disturbed places.


Habit	Habit	Habit	Phyllaries

Leaf	Leaf base	Seedhead

Slender Sow-thistle Sonchus tenerrimus

Native from Macaronesia and the Mediterranean Region eastwards through the Middle East and Arabian Peninsula to Pakistan.


Habit	Flowerhead	Flowerhead	Phyllaries

Phyllaries	Phyllaries	Leaf	Leaf

Smooth Sow-thistle Sonchus oleraceus

Widespread and common as a weed of urban and disturbed places.


Habit	Habit	Flowerhead	Flowerhead

Phyllaries	Leaf	Leaf base

Annual Hyoseris Hyoseris scabra

Native throughout the Mediterranean Region. A common annual of open, bare places, including along paths and as an urban weed.


Habit	Flowerhead	Flowerhead	Flowerhead

Phyllaries	Phyllaries	Phyllaries	Leaf

Common Reichardia Reichardia picroides

Native throughout the Mediterranean Region. Common in disturbed ground and bare places, including along paths and as an urban weed.


Habit	Flowerhead	Phyllaries	Phyllaries

Phyllaries	Basal leaf	Leaf	Stem leaf

Tuberous Hawk's-beard Sonchus bulbosa

(Aetheorhiza bulbosa) Native from Macaronesia through southern Europe and the Mediterranean Region.


Flowerhead	Flowerhead	Phyllaries	Leaf

Common Dandelion Taraxacum officinale agg.

A complex of both native and introduced populations, common in grassy places and also in urban environments. Flowers mostly in April and May, but a few plants may occasionally be found flowering during any month of the year. Although similar to other species on this page, dandelions may be readily identified by their fragile flower stems which in cross-section can be seen to consist largely of a hollow centre, with just a narrow stem wall around the outside. Stems readily seep white sap if broken. Leaves are very variable but generally are deeply and sharply toothed or lobed and are largely hairless. Phyllaries are usually very strongly reflexed; flowerheads large. Dandelions in the broad sense consist of a large number of very closely-related species (nearly 100 have been recorded in East anglia!!) and separation of these is very difficult and really only the realm of a handful of experts.


Habit	Phyllaries	Leaf	Leaf

Nipplewort Lapsana communis

Widespread throughout Europe, North-west Africa and eastwards through northern and western Asia. Leaves downy, lobed, the end lobe much larger than the side lobes. Flowerheads small, 1.5-2cm across, at the top of open, many branched stems, vgrowing to 90cm in height. Phyllaries stiffly erect. This species is readily told from all others on this page when the seeds start to mature and it can be seen that they have no fringe of hairs (pappus) to help distribute them.


Habit	Flowerhead	Flowerhead	Phyllaries

Basal leaves	Stem leaves	Seedheads	Seedhead

Star Hawkbit Rhagadiolus stellatus

Native throughout most of southern Europe and the Mediterranean Region.


Habit	Habit	Flowerhead	Phyllaries

Leaf	Seedhead	Seedhead	Seedhead

Fraas's Hawk's-beard Crepis fraasii

Native to Greece, western Turkey and Cyprus. Prefers semi-shaded, damp locations. Phyllaries downy with short, glandular hairs.


Habit	Flowerheads	Phyllaries	Leaves

Beaked Hawk's-beard Crepis vesicaria

Native throughout much of Europe and the Mediterranean Region. Basal leaves stalked, lightly downy and deeply lobed in a manner similar to dandelions. Upper leaves narrower and clasping the lightly hairy stems. Flowerheads 1.5-2.5cm across, petals often orange on the back. Long, inner phyllaries tight against the flowerhead; shorter, outer phyllaries curved outward. Even before they are ripe, the seeds can be seen to have a narrow, elongated 'beak' at the top, between the seed and the tuft of silky white hairs (pappus) that serves to distribute the seed by wind.


Flowerheads	Flowerheads	Leaf	Fruits

Bristly Hawk's-beard Crepis setosa

Native throughout Europe to the Caucasus and Turkey.


Habit	Phyllaries	Leaf

Common Skeletonweed Chondrilla juncea

Native to most of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin and western Asia. A frequent coloniser of bare and disturbed grounnd.


Habit	Habit	Flowerheads	Flowerheads

Phyllaries	Basal leaves	Stem leaf	Stem base

Prickly Goldenfleece Urospermum picroides

Native throughout the Mediterranean Basin and Middle East. A weedy coloniser of bare and disturbed ground.


Habit	Habit	Flowerhead	Phyllaries

Phyllaries	Leaf	Leaf	Stem

Bristly Oxtongue Helminthotheca echioides

Native throughout much of Europe and the Mediterranean Region eastwards through the Middle East to Iran. A roughly bristly plant with the leaves bearing whitish, blister-like bumps. Stems are much-branched, forming rounded, bushy plants to 90cm in height. Flowers have distinctive, very broad, bristly lower phyllaries that are unlike those of any similar species.


Habit	Flowerhead	Phyllaries	Leaf

Rough Oxtongue Picris rhagadioloides

Native to Central Europe and the Mediterranean Region. In disturbed and cultivated places, roadsides and grassy areas.


Flowerhead	Flowerhead	Phyllaries	Phyllaries

Leaf	Leaf hairs	Stem detail

Scaly Hawkbit Hedypnois rhagadioloides ssp. rhagadioloides

Native throughout the Mediterranean Basin and Middle East. A low species of bare and disturbed ground, including beaches.


Habit	Flowerhead	Flowerhead	Flowerhead

Phyllaries	Phyllaries	Leaf	Leaves

Tuberous Hawkbit Leontodon tuberosus

Native throughout the Mediterranean Region.


Habit	Habit	Flowerheads	Phyllaries

Phyllaries	Leaves	Leaf detail	Stem

Mediterranean Cat's-ear Hypochaeris achyrophorus

Native throughout the Mediterranean Basin and Middle East. A common species of bare and disturbed ground.


Flowerhead	Flowerhead	Phyllaries	Phyllaries

Phyllaries	Leaf	Old seedhead

Common Cat's-ear Hypochaeris radicata

Native throughout Europe and the Mediterranean Region. May grow to 50cm in height in long grass, but oftem much shorter. Leaves are softly downy, like a cat's ear (giving the plant its name) and the flowering stems are tough, wiry (not hollow), branched and have small, pointed bracts on them, often with one just below the flowerhead. The flowerhead is not tapered at the base, but narrows abruptly into the stem. Phyllaries hairless.


Habit	Phyllaries	Leaf tip	Stem bract

Smooth Cat's-ear Hypochaeris glabra

Native throughout Europe and the Mediterranean Region. Occasionally growing to 30cm in height, but more often 10cm or less. Leaves are hairless, in small, basal rosettes and the wiry flowering stems have small, pointed bracts on them, often with one just below the flowerhead. The flowerhead is not tapered at the base, but narrows abruptly into the stem. Phyllaries hairless. Flowerheads are the smallest in this group, often no more than 1-1.5cm across.


Flowerhead	Phyllaries	Phyllaries	Leaf

Common Andryala Andryala integrifolia

Native throughout most of the Mediterranean Region. Plants from the eastern Mediterranean are sometimes considered to be a separate species, Andryala dentata.