Autumn hawkbit

4,0016,75

The late summer plant resembles a common dandelion. Autumn hawkbit is a honey plant that provides bees with pollen, and nectar. Wild, non-cultivar seeds.

SKU: N046

About the species

Polish name: autumn warts-healer

Latin name: Leontodon autumnalis L. (syn. Scorzoneroides autumnalis Moench.)

Family: the asters Asteraceae (the composites Compositae), subfamily: chicory Cichorioidae

Status in Poland: native, common

Durability:
perennial plant
Flower color:
yellow
Height:
about 40 cm
Flowering:
June-September

Morphology

The low or medium-high perennial plant with  highly branched and  arching stems, which distinguishes it from the related bristly hawkbit.

It produces underground rhizomes and above-ground flower stems. The leaves are inconspicuous, reduced to  scales on  flower shoots, pinnatisect and  simple but coarsely serrated close to the ground.

The inflorescences are typical for the family and  subfamily, i.e. yellow heads on  tops of shoots, emerging in  numbers from 1 to  7 per  one shoot, composed of only  ray flowers. They open in the morning on  warm days and  dry. They close in  the time of rainfall and  after  noon. The heads of the autumn hawkbit protect the short ciliated involucres  olive gray-green or almost blackish.

The fruits of this perennial are cylindrical, deeply wrinkled red-brown achenes, slightly tapering towards  the apex, dispersed by the wind due to the pappus. On  one head is usually from 160 to  235 achenes.

Additional information

Sowing

It prefers fertile, acidic, low-calcium substrates.

It has great potential as a component of urban flower meadows, flower margins in orchards and bee pastures, because it tolerates soil salinity and overfertilization, drought, trampling and quite frequent mowing.

Interesting facts

Young delicate leaves, stems, and heads can be eaten despite the bitter sap they contain. Hawkbits, like many other composite ones, played a significant role during economic blockades, wars, and natural disasters, replacing coffee and leaf vegetables.

Autumn hawkbit in seed mixtures:

Use Value

In the case of the autumn hawkbit there are no data regarding honey yield.

However, it can be quite a good forage species, just like its bristly cousin which produces abundantly both pollen, and nectar.

Late flowering is an additional advantage, for these reasons many other Asteraceae were brought to Europe, such as the American species of goldenrod or cup plant.

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