Crepis vesicaria Beaked Hawk's-beard

A robust, stiffly erect, usually hairy, biennial hawkbeard which is common in roadside verges, waysides, sand dunes, waste places and along forest roads. It is the first hawk's-beard to flower and it is usually very conspicuous in roadside verges in late spring. It can be confused with robust froms of Smooth Hawk's-beard (Crepis capillaris) and Rough Hawk's-beard (Crepis biennis), but unlike those species it has distinctly beaked achenes.  It is native to the Mediterranean and south western Asia and was first recorded in Britain in 1713. It is widespread in southern Britain but missing from much of the middle, upland areas of Wales. In West Glamorgan it is most common in coastal and lowland areas, particularly in Neath Port Talbot, but it has extended its upland range in recent decades along the major road systems of the valleys and along forest roads in conifer plantations. It is uncommon and absent from most of Gower.

Neophyte