Crepis bursifolia

Italian hawksbeard

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Italian hawksbeard is a naturalized perennial found in northern Coast Ranges and San Francisco Bay Area in lawn and disturbed urban places at elevations below 100 meters. Flowering from April to September, this plant produces pale yellow flowers in small clusters with 30 to 60 individual blooms. Growing with flexible stems 5 to 35 centimeters tall that arch or spread decumbently and branch cymosely, it emerges with multiple stems from a stout taproot. Its basal leaves are oblanceolate and pinnately divided, featuring lanceolate lateral lobes with a larger terminal lobe, while upper stem leaves become progressively smaller and more linear. The fruit is pale brown and fusiform, with a beak nearly twice the length of its body and ten distinct ribs.

Habitat: Lawn weed, disturbed urban places

Bloom period: Apr-Sep

Elevation: < 100 m

Bioregions: n CCo, SnFrB

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.