Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 811 (1753).

Synonymy: Hypochoeris glabra

Common name: Smooth catsear, glabrous catsear.

Description:
Annual herb 10-40 cm high; leaves oblanceolate, narrowed at the base, obtuse, 1-20 cm long, 0.5-4 cm wide, shallowly dentate to sinuate-pinnatifld, glabrous to sparsely strigose, forming a rosette closely appressed to the ground.

Scapes 8-40 cm long, simple or sparsely corymbose-branched, with a few minute scaleleaves, smooth, glabrous, rarely inflated just below the capitulum; capitula erect, 4-16 mm diam.; involucre 3-10 mm diam., 8-17 mm long; bracts 7-25, in 3 or 4 series, glabrous; ligules oblong, subequal to the perianth tube, 2-5 mm long, pale- to bright-yellow.

Achenes of the outermost row narrowly obconic, truncate, beakless, 2.5-6 mm long; other achenes fusiform, filiform-beaked, 6-12 mm long, brown; pappus 9-15 mm long.

Published illustration: Ross-Craig (1963) Drawings Brit. Pl. 18:t. 21.

Distribution:  In a wide range of habitats, chiefly on sandy and loam soils. S.Aust.: LE, GT, FR, EA, EP, NL, MU, YP, SL, KI, SE.   All States.   Native to Europe. Conservation status: naturalised Flowering time: Aug. — Dec.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: Highly variable, but local populations are not certainly referrable to any of the varieties and forms which have been described in Europe. A serious weed of cultivation, lawns and disturbed ground, and one of the earliest invaders of natural vegetation along tracks.

Author: Not yet available