I've been wanting to know what this plant is for years. Height: 3-4'. Leaves- to 6" long, alternate, spiny pointed (like holly), glossy, smooth, soft, glabrous. Dominant center vein. Sessile. Lower leaves are the same as upper leaves. I have seen no variation on leaf shape. Flowers - yellow. Each -width 1 cm. Petals blunt with 5 teeth. Broad, open panicle to 1' wide, pedicels are 1-3" Seeds -black. Stem -Single, hairy at base to about halfway up. I find these in dappled to deep shade, moist rich soil, often overhanging a creek. Blooming now, usually in October. I have looked at Lactucae, but I can't find any that fit. A friend suggested Hieracium paniculatum, but the leaf undersides aren't glaucous.
Re: ID Wildflower in North Carolina? Thanks, Lorax! I went out and pulled some seeds to see if they had the characteristic hooks that Bidens have. I don't see any. Photos are of achenes and one of the hairy base of the plant. I think I'd need a microscope to see if the achenes are "columnar" like Hieracium or "flattened" like Lactuca. Lactuca seeds have a beak --I'm not sure what that means. I have read that it's standard for Lactuca flower petals to be truncated, with 5 notches. Hieracium venosum and H. aurantiacum also have such petals, but I can't find out if Hieracium paniculatum does. This is so very frustrating! If anyone knows another photo I should (try to) take, please tell me!
Re: ID Wildflower in North Carolina? Hmmmm. I'm not seeing any beaking (it would be fairly obvious, since the term refers to distinct single hooks on the point of the achene), which would point more in the direction of Hieracium of some sort. That's about as far as I can go with it, though; I'm terribly rusty on my US flora.
Re: ID Wildflower in North Carolina? Oh, so that's what a beak is! They couldn't just say that a beak is a hook; it had to be a rigid projection. Thanks for clearing that up, anyway. I appreciate your looking at this at all! I know that Hieracium paniculatum is a dead ringer. I just can't escape all the descriptions of glaucous leaf undersides.
Re: ID Wildflower in North Carolina? Glaucous leaves are probably one of the most variable characteristics in plants. Note all the different "blue" clones that are in cultivation. http://www.google.co.uk/images?um=1...=blue+hosta&aq=f&aqi=g1g-m2&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
Re: ID Wildflower in North Carolina? Oh! I didn't know that. Obviously. That is the sort of knowledge you don't happen across in a field guide, which is what makes forums like this, and people like you guys, so valuable. Thank you! So, Hieracium paniculatum it is. I'll have to tell Esh_ga --she got it.
