Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Tribe: Cichorieae
Genus: Crepis
Species: C. foetida
Subspecies: Crepis foetida subsp. foetida
Synonyms: Crepis foetida subsp. vulgaris
Common name: Stinking hawksbeard
Crepis foetida subsp. foetida is a member of a large family of composites which includes daisies, thistles and dandelions. It is distinguished from its many similar-looking relatives by its drooping buds and a characteristic smell resembling bitter almonds, although some people are unable to detect this. It is widespread across much of Europe, S.W. and C. Asia, and is now naturalised in scattered locations in New Zealand. It is more common in the southeastern North Island but it is also present in Canterbury.
It grows in a wide range of habitats, from sandy areas to dry fields, rocky places inland and on cultivated land and waste places.
Crepis foetida subsp. foetida is an annual, biennial, or perennial herb up to 60 cm tall; stems are branched and are glandular-pubescent. One plant can produce as many as 10 flower heads, each with 100 or more yellow ray florets but no disc florets.
Thanks to the Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust, Sydney, Australia. http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au for the plant's description below.
The basal leaves usually forming a rosette, ± oblanceolate in outline, 4–13 cm long, 1–3 cm wide, apex obtuse to acute, margins toothed to runcinate-pinnatisect, ± pubescent; cauline leaves oblanceolate to lanceolate, becoming reduced further up the stem.
Heads turbinate, 10–15 mm diam., 1–3, terminal on each branch; involucral bracts narrow-lanceolate, with dense glandular and finer non-glandular hairs; receptacle with margins of pits ciliate. Corolla yellow, with a red stripe on the outer face of ligule.
Achenes fusiform, scabrous; the outer 7–9 mm long, beakless or shortly beaked; inner achenes 12–17 mm long, with a beak 6–10 mm long; pappus 2 rows of simple white hairs, 5–7 mm long.
Readily identified by the extremely long beaks of the central achenes. They exceed the involucral bracts at maturity.
A field SE of Christchurch infested with
Thanks to Wikipedia for text and information: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
