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gray hawksbeard, largeflower hawksbeard, western hawk's beard

Habit Perennials, 8–40 cm; taproots deep, caudices swollen, (often covered with old leaf bases).
Stems

1–3, erect, stout, branched from bases or beyond, hispid, tomentose, or tomentulose, sometimes stipitate-glandular distally.

Leaves

basal and cauline; petiolate;

blades elliptic, runcinate, (5–)8–20 × 2–5 cm, margins pinnately-lobed to sinuously dentate (lobes broadly lanceolate, often dentate), apices acute or acuminate, faces gray-tomentose, sometimes stipitate-glandular.

Involucres

cylindric, 11–19 × 5–10 mm.

Florets

10–40;

corollas yellow, 18–22 mm.

Phyllaries

7–13, lanceolate, 12–15 mm, (bases thickened, keeled, margins green, often scarious) apices acute or acuminate, abaxial faces gray-tomentose, sometimes setose (setae black or greenish) or stipitate-glandular, adaxial glabrous or with fine hairs.

Calyculi

of 6–8, lanceolate or linear, glabrate to tomentose bractlets 2–6 mm.

Heads

2–30, in loose corymbiform arrays.

Cypselae

golden or dark brown, subcylindric, 6–10 mm, apices tapered (not beaked), ribs 10–18, strong and rounded;

pappi yellowish white, 10–12 mm (bristles unequal).

2n

= 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, 88.

Crepis occidentalis

Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; SD; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; SK
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Discussion

Subspecies 4 (4 in the flora).

Crepis occidentalis is recognized by the old, brown leaf bases persisting on caudices, by stems, leaves, and phyllaries gray-tomentose, and by loose, corymbiform arrays with relatively few, relatively large heads. It is widespread and polymorphic. Some specimens have coarse setae or black, stipitate glands on the phyllaries in addition to the tomentose indument, the stipitate glands sometimes extending proximally on stems. Four intergrading subspecies were recognized by E. B. Babcock (1947). The sexual diploid forms are found in subsp. occidentalis and occur in northern California and adjacent Nevada. The other subspecies are polyploid and apomictic (Babcock).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
1. Phyllaries sparsely to densely stipitate-glandular
→ 2
1. Phyllaries 8–12, usually eglandular, if glandular, phyllaries 8
→ 3
2. Phyllaries (peduncles and distal cauline leaves) stipitate-glandular (lacking large dark or black glandular setae); phyllaries 7–8 or 10–13; florets 18–30
subsp. occidentalis
2. Phyllaries (peduncles and distal cauline leaves) stipitate-glandular (and with dark or black, glandular setae); phyllaries 8, florets 10–14
subsp. costata
3. Plants 10–40 cm (stems with definite primary axes, branched distally; phyllaries mostly 8; leaves coarsely dentate or pinnately lobed (lobes closely spaced)
subsp. pumila
3. Plants 5–20 cm (stems branched proximally; phyllaries 8–12; leaves deeply pinnately lobed (lobes remotely spaced, lanceolate, or linear, entire or dentate)
subsp. conjuncta
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 232.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Cichorieae > Crepis
Sibling taxa
C. acuminata, C. atribarba, C. bakeri, C. barbigera, C. biennis, C. bursifolia, C. capillaris, C. elegans, C. foetida, C. intermedia, C. modocensis, C. monticola, C. nana, C. nicaeënsis, C. pannonica, C. pleurocarpa, C. pulchra, C. rubra, C. runcinata, C. setosa, C. tectorum, C. vesicaria, C. zacintha
Subordinate taxa
C. occidentalis subsp. conjuncta, C. occidentalis subsp. costata, C. occidentalis subsp. occidentalis, C. occidentalis subsp. pumila
Synonyms Psilochenia occidentalis
Name authority Nuttall: J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 7: 29. (1834)
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