COMPOSITE FAMILY 



COMPOSITAE 



PURPLE-LEAVED HAWKWEED 



Hicracium 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 I 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 i 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 i inch broad. 



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