COMPOSITE FAMILY COMPOSITAE 
PURPLE-LEAVED HAWKWEED 
Hiecracium venosum L. 
Nine species of Hawkweed grow in Illinois, four of which 
are quite common. This one grows mostly in dry woods and 
sandy open places from Maine to Manitoba and south to Georgia 
and Nebraska. 
The stems, 1-3 feet high and 
paniculately branching near the 
top, are several from the same 
root, or solitary. They are slender, 
smooth and entirely naked or 
with 1 or 2 leaves. A tuft of 
oblong-spatulate, smooth and 
purple-veined leaves grows at 
the base. 
The blooming season is May 
to late fall. The heads are com- 
monly numerous and 15-40- 
flowered. The bracts of the in- 
volucre are mostly in I series 
and smooth or nearly so. The 
receptacle is flat and naked. 
The corollas are strap shaped and 
yellow, and all the flowers are 
perfect. The akenes are cylin- 
drical and the pappus is composed 
of a rather small number of brown 
bristles. 
The Rough Hawkweed, Hiera- 
cium scabrum Michx., is also found 
in dry places and is probably our : 
commonest species. The stem is stout, hairy, leafy and 1-4 feet 
high. The leaves are alternate, hairy, oblong and narrowed to a sessile 
base or the lowest into short-margined petioles. There is no cluster 
of basal leaves at flowering time, which is July to September. The 
heads are usually numerous and less than 1 inch broad, and the 
stout peduncles are very glandular. 
The Canada Hawkweed, Hieracium canadense Michx., with a 
somewhat smooth or hairy stem 1-5 feet erect, likewise has no tuft. 
of basal leaves at flowering time, from July to September. The many 
stem leaves are ovate to lanceolate, coarsely toothed especially below 
the middle, sessile and at least the upper are clasping by rounded 
bases. The yellow flowers are-in numerous heads r«inch broad. 
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