Picris hieracioides Hawkweed Oxtongue

Picris hieracioides, Hawkweed Oxtongue, is a yellow-flowered composite of grassland verges and rough ground, often plentiful in open mosaic sites. It is usually a short-lived perennial but it flowers and fruits abundantly and produces lots of seed. It produces fairly tall (up to 1m), leafy stems which are conspicuously hairy, but not spiny, with leaves that bear a superficial resemblance to hawkweed leaves, hence its common name. The hairs of Bristly Oxtongue (Helminthotheca echioides) are much stiffer (i.e. bristly) and the two species are fairly distinct. There are 4 subspecies of Hawkweed Oxtongue in Britain but only subspecies hieracioides has been recorded in West Glamorgan. It is mostly coastal in its distribution in the county, with just a few inland records. It has become more abundant in West Glamorgan in recent decades and is now particularly common in Neath Port Talbot between Baglan and the Kenfig Industrial Estate. This local range expansion may be driving the recent spread of the nationally rare Oxtongue Broomrape (Orobanche picridis) which uses Hawkweed Broorape as its main host.