Beaked hawkweed is a native wildflower of forests, blufftops, glades, pastures, and roadsides. It looks something like a hairy, yellow-flowering chicory. It is found mostly south of the Missouri River.
Beaked hawkweed is a very hairy, usually single-stemmed perennial herb with milky sap. The hairs typically are light orangish brown, with bulbous or expanded bases.
The flowerheads are few to many, terminal, each with a peduncle (stem), in open clusters, yellow, small, and about ½ inch across. There are 20–40 florets per head.
Blooms May–October.
The plant has basal leaves (in a whorl) and stem leaves. The basal leaves are broadly obovate, very hairy, rough, and variable in length to 8 inches; they are usually present at flowering time. The stem leaves are alternate, becoming sessile, smaller, and fewer higher on the stem, also very hairy.
Similar species: Four species of hawkweeds, genus Hieracium, have been recorded for Missouri. Here are the other three:
- Long-haired hawkweed (Hieracium longipilum) occurs in a broad band from southwest to northeast Missouri and prefers open areas. It has spreading hairs about ½ to ¾ inch long.
- Sticky hawkweed (Hieracium scabrum) is scattered to common, mostly in the eastern half of the state. It has 40–100 florets per head, and the basal leaves are usually withered by flowering time.
- Yellow king-devil, or yellow hawkweed (Hieracium caespitosum), is a nonnative, weedy species that forms colonies by its underground rhizomes. Several US states have declared it invasive. In 1993, a population was discovered becoming naturalized in Shaw Nature Reserve in Franklin County, which warranted control measures. It has bright yellow florets, white (not tan or brown) pappus bristles (the "fluff" on the seed heads), and blackish hairs on the upper stems and flowerhead bases.
Height: quite variable, commonly from 1 to nearly 3 feet.
Scattered, mostly south of the Missouri River, and in some of our eastern counties.
Habitat and Conservation
Occurs in rich to dry upland forests, ledges and tops of bluffs, and borders of glades; also pastures, old fields, and roadsides.
Status
Native Missouri wildflower.
Human Connections
Hawkweeds, including native species and introduced ones, are usually considered crop weeds. Our native hawkweeds have a bona fide place in our natural habitats.
There are several weedy European species of hawkweeds that are serious pasture and grassland weeds on our continent.
- One of these, yellow king-devil (H. caespitosum), was first recorded in the United States in Washington state in 1969. It was found in our state in 1993.
- Unfortunately, it is likely that more of these invasives will eventually arrive in Missouri.
- Ordinary Missouri residents can help natural habitats, and our farmers, by learning how to ID plants. You could be the person to recognize and report a newly arrived invasive species.
The genus name, Hieracium, has as its root the Greek word for "hawk." Pliny, the ancient Roman natural historian, wrote that hawks ate the plant for its ability to sharpen their eyesight, and thus we also have the English name "hawkweed."
The species name, gronovii, was given to this plant by the originator of our scientific naming system, Carl Linneaus. With the name, he honored Jan Frederik (Johann Frederik) Gronovius (1686–1762), a Dutch botanist.
- Gronovius's collection of plants from around the world, especially plants from North America, was important for Linneaus's own work.
- Gronovius funded the first publication of Linneaus's landmark work Systema Naturae.
Ecosystem Connections
A variety of insects, including many kinds of bees, flies, beetles, and others, visit the flowers.
Birds including wild turkey eat the seedheads.
Deer and rabbits eat the leaves.
Botanists who study the hawkweeds haven't agreed on how many species there are.
- Although New World species are fairly distinct and easy to tell apart, those in Europe hybridize so much that thousands of species have been named over there.
- Estimates vary from 100 to 800 to many more than 10,000 species and subspecies!
- At the heart of the debate is how to define a "species." Genetic analysis is a relatively new tool, providing information previous generations of botanists didn't have.
Hawkweeds, chicory, salsify, lettuce, and dandelions belong to a distinct, easy-to-recognize tribe of the sunflower family, the Cichorieae (chicory tribe).
- Although most sunflowers have different disk (center) and petal-like ray florets, plants in the chicory tribe have flowerheads containing florets that are all the same. Each individual floret has a straplike extension with 5 teeth at the tip.
- Another hallmark of the chicory tribe is their white, milky sap.
