Hieracium lachenalii (European hawkweed)

Plants: Plants are 4–36″ (10–91 cm) tall. Flowering stems have scattered black hairs tipped with glands. Broken stems exude a milky latex.

Leaves: Basal leaves are lanceolate to elliptic, hairy or smooth, 1¾–6 ⨉ ⅜–1¾″ (5–15 ⨉ 1–5 cm), with toothed margins. Leaf bases, usuallly cuneate, may also be rounded or squared. Leaves decrease in size further up the stems. Broadly elliptic, 1¾–4″ (5–10 cm) long.

Flowers: Flowerheads are grouped near stem tips. Each flower is ⅜–¾″ (1–2 cm) around, with 40-80 ray florets and no disc florets. Each floret is ½–⅝″ (1.3–1.8 cm) long. Flowers appear all summer.

Fruits: Dark brown achenes are cylindrical and 1/16–⅛″ (2.5–3.5 mm) long. Each seed has a pappus composed of 30 to 40 bristles.

Habitats: These hawkweeds aggressively colonize low-nutrient soils, including disturbed soils, meadows, trail edges, and fields.

9/29/2013 · Compass Harbor, Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Maine · ≈ 8 × 6″ (20 × 14 cm)

9/29/2013 · Compass Harbor, Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Maine · ≈ 6 × 4½″ (15 × 11 cm)

9/29/2013 · Compass Harbor, Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Maine · ≈ 6 × 8″ (14 × 20 cm)

Kingdom	Plantae	Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae (from Stearn's Botanical Latin)
Subkingdom	Tracheobionta	Vascular plants—plants with a “circulatory system” for delivering water and nutrients
Division	Magnoliophyta	Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms
Class	Magnoliopsida	Dicotyledons—plants with two initial seed leaves
Subclass	Asteridae	A large class that encompasses asters
Order	Asterales	Flowering plants with a central disk flower and surrounding petals, like daisies
Family	Asteraceae	The aster family, which also includes daisies and sunflowers; from the Greek ἀστήρ, “star,” for the star-shaped flowers
Genus	Hieracium	From Greek hierakion, “a hawk,” from Pliny’s belief that hawks strengthened their eyesight by eating these plants
Species	lachenalii	For Swiss botanist Werner de Lachenal (1736-1800).

About plant names...