RHAGADIOLUS STELLATUS

Family:- COMPOSITAE

Common Names:- Star hawkbit

Synonyms:- Lapsana stellata.

Meaning:- Rhagadiolus (Gr) Divided.

Stellatus (L) With spreading rays, star-like.

General description:- Low to medium annual, usually sparsely hairy throughout.

Stems:-

1) 7-40 cm, usually branched, erect to spreading.

Leaves:-

1) 25-140 x 10-70 mm, mostly oblong-obovate, sinuate-dentate to lyrate-pinnatifid,

but the cauline sometimes ovate to lanceolate.

Flowers:-

1) Capitula yellow, 7-10 mm, long Pedunculate, borne in a lax spreading panicle,

occasionally with few flowers.

2) Involucre, 5-8 x 2·5-3·5 mm at anthesis, accrescent in fruit.

a) outer bracts, 5, very small, ovate, patent and stellate in fruit.

b) inner bracts, 5-8, narrowly linear-lanceolate, sometimes with a median row of

rigid hairs.

Fruit:-

1) Outer achenes, 10-15 x 1-1·5 mm, curved, forming a characteristic radiating

infructescence.

Key features:-

1) Leaves not spiny.

2) At least some achenes without pappus.

3) Outer involucral bracts enfolding achenes, patent and stellate in fruit.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Seasonally damp habitats in fallow fields, olive groves, open dry shrubby

vegetation and open wood-land. 0-800(-1400) m.

Distribution:- Widespread and common throughout the Mediterranean. Widespread

and common on Crete.

Flowering time:- Mar to early June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton