Crepis vesicaria, L.

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1976, Flora Europaea. Volume 4. Plantaginaceae to Compositae (and Rubiaceae), Cambridge University Press : 356

66. C. vesicaria L. , Sp. Pl. 805 (1753).

Perennial, biennial or annual; stems 3-150 cm, usually much-branched. Leaves pubescent or glabrous; basal 10-35x2-8 cm, oblanceolate or sometimes almost spathulate or ovate, obtuse to acute, sinuately or retrorsely denticulate, dentate or runcinate-pinnatifid, pinnatisect or 2-pinnatisect, often lyrate, sometimes pectinate, narrowed at base; lower cauline like the basal or sessile; upper cauline lanceolate to bract-like, auriculate-amplexicaul. Capitula many, often in a lax corymb. Involucre 5—14 mm, more or less tomentose, often with glandular or eglandular hairs; outer bracts (f-)ł-ł(-1) as long as inner. Achenes brown or yellowish, fusiform, uniform or of 2 kinds, the inner always beaked, c. 10- ribbed. S., C. & W. Europe, northwards to the Netherlands and W. Austria; widely naturalized in Britain and Ireland. Al Au Be BI Cr Ga Ge Gr He Ho Hs It Ju Lu Sa Si Tu [Br Hb].

1 Outer involucral bracts broadly ovate, imbricate

(a) subsp. vesicaria 1 Outer involucral bracts linear-lanceolate, not imbricate

2 Ultimate branches strongly deflexed before anthesis; flowering in winter (b) subsp. hyemalis 2 Ultimate branches erect before anthesis; flowering in summer 3Achenes pale brown, finely beaked and ribbed, the beak smooth or finely muricate; receptacular pits with slender, white cilia (c) subsp. haenseleri 3Achenes brownish-yellow, coarsely beaked and ribbed, the beak definitely ribbed and spinulose to the apex; receptacular pits with coarse, yellow, shining cilia

(d) subsp. congenita