MOUSE-EAR HAWKWEED 



165 



This wild flower has no real aerial stem, the flowering stems being 

 scapes. It is stoloniferous, and except for the scapes prostrate or 

 decumbent. The leaves are stalked, entire, egg-shaped, downy be- 

 neath, dark-green, rough, hairy both sides, the offsets branching out 

 from the centre of the leaves and creeping, leafy and stiffly hairy, or 

 with a felt of long stiff hairs, and stellately downy below. In dry 

 weather the leaf rolls up, the downy under side being uppermost. 



The flowerheads are 

 pale or sulphur -yellow, 

 the outer ones purple be- 

 low, the petals fringed 

 and reddish-flecked. The 

 phyllaries are unequal and 

 imbricating. The scapes 

 are one-flowered. 



The plant is rarely 

 more than 6 in. high (the 

 scapes). It is in flower 

 from May to July and 

 even later. It is a peren- 

 nial propagated by divi- 

 sion, and worth cultivating. 



The flowers open in 

 fine weather between 7 

 and 8. The capitulum is 

 made up of 42-64 florets, 

 which increase in size 

 centrifugally. The tube 



is 3-6 mm., and the limb MOUSE-EAR HAWKWEED (Hieradum Pilosella, L.) 



4-8 mm. The capitulum 



opens in the sun and measures 20 mm., and being bright lemon-yellow 

 is, though small, conspicuous and attractive to insects. When it is wet 

 the petals close up. Insects' visits are not so abundant, and by means 

 of the involution of the stigmas the plant is self-fertilized. It is visited 

 by Panurgus, Andrena, HalictuS, Ceratina, Diphysis, Nomada, Cephus, 

 Bombylius, Helophilus, Hollyblue (Cyaniris argiolus), The Mother 

 Shipton (Pieris brassica], Large White Butterfly (Euclidia mi); 

 Coleoptera, Leptura livida, Cryptocephalus. 



The pappus is slender, but assists in the dispersal of the fruits by 

 the wind. 



Mouse-ear Hawkweed is a rock plant, and is addicted to a sand 



Photo. Flatters & Garnett 



