HAWK'S BEARD 



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narrower, with a purple midrib, clasping stem-leaves, which are acute 

 toothed, with the inrolled margins and the lobes bent back. 



The flower-heads are yellow, numerous, in a downy involucre, with 

 the outer bracts narrow, linear, widely spreading or closely associated 

 the inner ones smooth within. The fruit is shorter than the pappus' 

 which is silky. 



Hawk's Beard is 6 in. to 

 3 ft. in height. Flowers may 

 be found in June and July. 

 It is an annual, herbaceous, 

 and increased by seeds. 



The flowerheacl is large 

 and conspicuous, and the 

 plant is visited by many 

 insects. The corolla is lio-u- 



> 



late, bell -shaped, yellow, 

 the florets being herma- 

 phrodite. The stamens are 

 borne on hair- like anther- 

 stalks with the anthers 

 united into a cylinder. The 

 arms of the style are slen- 

 der, the upper part hairy, 

 and as long as the stamens. 

 The 2 stigmas are turned 

 back. The visitors are 

 Hymenoptera, Panurgus, 

 Rhophites, Dasypoda, An- 



drena, Halictus, Diptera, Syrphidae, Eristalis, Melithrcptus, Syrphus, 

 Cheilosia, Conopidae, Sines, Coleoptera, Mordellidae, Mordclla. 



The white pappus is in many rows, and assists in the dispersal of 

 the fruit by the wind. 



Hawk's Beard is addicted to a sand soil, and is more or less strictly 

 a sand-loving plant. 



Like other Composites, Hawk's Beard is attacked by a fungus, 

 Puccinia hieracii. A Hymenopterous insect, Halictits vitlosiilns, is 

 found upon it. 



Crepis, Pliny, is from the Greek crcpis, a kind of boot; and 

 the second Latin name means green, fresh. It was called Hawkbit 

 because the hawk was supposed to pluck it and smear its eyes with 

 it to improve its vision. 



Photo. J. 



HAWK'S BEARD (Crepis vircns, L.) 



