1. Hieracium caespitosum Dumort. (yellow king-devil)
Map 1067
Plants with
short to long, spreading rhizomes and also usually with stolons, thus frequently
forming colonies. Stems solitary or few to several, 25–100 cm long, moderately
to densely pubescent toward the base with light orangish brown, spreading to
loosely ascending hairs 2–4 mm long having a bulbous or slightly expanded base,
these becoming sparse or absent toward the tip, also inconspicuously pubescent
with minute, branched hairs, especially toward the tip, also with moderate to
dense, dark-colored, gland-tipped hairs toward the tip. Basal leaves persistent
at flowering, sessile or with a short, indistinct, winged petiole, the blade 4–25
cm long, narrowly oblanceolate, sharply pointed at the tip, the surfaces and
margins pubescent with moderate to dense, spreading, bulbous-based hairs (these
often relatively dark-colored) and sparse to moderate, minute, branched hairs.
Stem leaves only 1 or 2 toward the stem base, similar to but shorter than the
basal leaves, mostly sessile, narrowly oblanceolate to linear, the base not
clasping the stem. Inflorescences mostly short, spreading panicles, sometimes
reduced to a loose or dense terminal cluster of few to several heads. Involucre
6–9 mm long, the inner series of bracts narrowly oblong-elliptic, pubescent
with spreading, dark-colored, gland-tipped hairs and usually also
inconspicuous, minute, cobwebby, branched 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 25–70. Corollas 8–14 mm long,
bright yellow. Pappus bristles 4–6 mm long, white. Fruits 1.5–2.0 mm long, more
or less cylindrical, not tapered at the tip. 2n=18, 27, 36, 45. June–September.
Introduced,
known thus far only from Franklin County (native of Europe, introduced widely
in the eastern and northwestern U.S., Canada). Open, grassy areas.
This species was
first collected in 1993 by Jane Stevens (now curator of insects at the St.
Louis Zoo) in a meadow at the Shaw Nature Reserve (then known as the Shaw
Arboretum) in Gray Summit, where it had not been planted and was well
naturalized. Efforts to control it have since been undertaken.