4. Hieracium scabrum Michx. (sticky hawkweed)

H. scabrum var. intonsum Fernald & H. St. John

Pl. 256 c, d; Map 1070

Plants with a short, usually erect or ascending rootstock. Stems mostly solitary, 20–80 cm long, moderately to densely pubescent toward the base, with light yellow to orangish brown, spreading to loosely ascending hairs 1–5 mm long having a bulbous or slightly expanded base, these becoming sparse or absent toward the tip, also inconspicuously pubescent with cobwebby, minute, branched hairs especially toward the tip, sometimes also with sparse, gland-tipped hairs toward the tip. Basal leaves withered or absent at flowering, when present (before the flower stem elongates) mostly short-petiolate, the blade 4–20 cm long, oblanceolate to obovate, rounded to broadly pointed at the tip (sometimes with an abrupt, minute, sharp point), the surfaces and margins pubescent with sparse to moderate, spreading, bulbous-based hairs. Stem leaves several and well spaced, similar to the basal leaves but progressively reduced in size, mostly sessile, oblong-obovate to broadly oblanceolate, the base usually not clasping the stem. Inflorescences mostly panicles, these short and few-headed in smaller plants but elongate and cylindrical in larger plants, occasionally only a loose terminal cluster of 2–5 heads. Involucre 6–9 mm long, the inner series of bracts narrowly oblong-lanceolate, pubescent with inconspicuous, cobwebby, branched hairs toward the base and usually also longer, spreading, usually dark-colored, gland-tipped hairs, the outer series variable and grading into the inner series, some of the bracts more than 1/2 as long as those of the inner series. Ligulate florets 40–100 or more. Corollas 9–11 mm long, yellow. Pappus bristles 6–7 mm long, light yellowish to orangish brown. Fruits 2–3 mm long, more or less cylindrical, not tapered at the tip. 2n=18. June–September.

Scattered to uncommon, mostly in the eastern half of the state, apparently absent from the Unglaciated Plains Division and the western portion of the Glaciated Plains (eastern U.S. west to Minnesota and Oklahoma). Mesic to dry upland forests, ledges and tops of bluffs, and rarely banks of streams; also rarely roadsides.

Uncommonly encountered plants with slightly longer (3–5 mm) stem hairs have been called var. intonsum, but too many intermediates exist to divide the species into varieties based solely on this character.