Scientific name: Hypochaeris radicata L.
Common name: Cat's ear
Description
Habit: Perennial, to 50 cm high.
Stems: Hairless, leafless but with a few small scales, usually branched.
Leaves: Foliage leaves all in basal rosettes, stem leaves very small, and reduced to scales; basal leaves 10-20 cm long, covered with stiff hairs; oblong-lanceolate and pinnatifid with blunt lobes, the terminal lobe broad and usually blunt.
Flowers: Yellow, flower-heads 25-35 mm across, 1-4 on a stem; involucral bracts numerous, overlapping and in several rows, hairless, the outer ones very short; florets all ligulate and bright yellow; scales present between the florets.
Fruits: An achene, central achene usually with a long beak; crowned by a feathery pappus of branched hairs.
Habitat: Grassland, sand dunes, rocky bluffs, limestone pavement.
Distribution: Abundant throughout.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No