Crepis acuminata
| Crepis acuminata | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Asterids |
| Order: | Asterales |
| Family: | Asteraceae |
| Tribe: | Cichorieae |
| Genus: | Crepis |
| Species: | C. acuminata |
| Binomial name | |
| Crepis acuminata Nutt. | |
Crepis acuminata is a species of flowering plant in the daisy family known by the common name tapertip hawksbeard. It is native to the western United States where it grows in many types of open habitat. It is a perennial herb producing a woolly, branching stem up to about 70 centimeters tall from a taproot. The gray-green leaves are long and cut into many triangular, pointed lobes. The longest, near the base of the plant, may reach 40 centimeters in length. The inflorescence is an open array of flowers at the top of the stem branches. Each of the many flower heads is enveloped in smooth or hairy phyllaries. The flower head opens into a face of up to 10 yellow ray florets. There are no disc florets. The fruit is a narrow achene 7 or 8 millimeters long tipped with a pappus of white hairlike bristles.