Crepis monticola

Mountain hawk's beard

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Mountain hawk's beard is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern California Coast Ranges, northern Sierra Nevada, and Mount Hamilton Range in conifer forest and open woodland at elevations of 700 to 2,400 meters. Flowering from May to July, this plant produces pale yellow to white flowers in loose clusters with 4 to 20 heads. Growing with slender stems 10 to 35 centimeters tall, densely covered in long, coarse hairs and glandular bristles, it emerges from a deep taproot. Its leaves range from 10 to 25 centimeters long, elliptic to oblanceolate, with pinnately lobed edges and lanceolate teeth, covered in soft, glandular hairs. The fruit is a reddish-brown, strongly ribbed structure 5.5 to 9 millimeters long with a creamy white pappus.

Habitat: Conifer forest, open woodland

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: 700-2400 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRH, CaRH, n SNH, se SnFrB (Mount Hamilton Range), MP

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