E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

Crepis modocensis Greene subsp. modocensis
low hawksbeard (Modoc hawksbeard; western low hawksbeard)
Asteraceae (Aster family)

Introduction to Vascular Plants

© Virginia Skilton  Email the photographer   (Photo ID #34077)

E-Flora BC Static Map
Distribution of Crepis modocensis subsp. modocensis
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Species Information

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General:
Perennial herb from a taproot and woody base; stems erect, 1-4, densely stiff-hairy near the base with whitish, crisped hairs or merely woolly-hairy, few branched, 10-30 cm tall.
Leaves:
Basal leaves long-stalked, deeply pinnately cut with lanceolate, toothed lobes, these abruptly sharp-pointed or with long- pointed tips and abruptly callus-tipped teeth, mostly 7-25 cm long, the blades nearly glabrous or woolly-hairy, the midribs and usually the stalks short-hairy; stem leaves similar to the basal ones, becoming reduced upwards.
Flowers:
Heads with strap-shaped flowers, 1-9 in an open inflorescence; involucres 6-17 mm tall, cylindric or bell-shaped; involucral bracts grey-woolly with stout, glandless bristles, these whitish or blackish, the outer ones lanceolate, the longest about 1/2 the length of the inner; ray flowers yellow, 14-22 mm long.
Fruits:
Achenes greenish-black to yellowish- or deep reddish-brown, 7-12 mm long, weakly to strongly 10-ribbed or smooth, longer than or equal to the pappus, narrowed above; pappus of white, hairlike bristles.
Notes:
Two subspecies occur in BC:

1. Hairs of the stem and stalks stiff, yellowish, those of the involucres blackish, all straight or slightly curved...................... ssp. modocensis

1. Hairs of the stem, stalks, and involucres all, or nearly all, whitish, elongate, and conspicuously curled or crisped, those of the involucres generally very dense.................... ssp. rostrata (Coville) Babc. & Stebb.

Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Habitat / Range

Dry grasslands and shrublands in the steppe zone; rare in SC BC, known recently only from Pavilion Lake (ssp. modocensis) and Lac du Bois (ssp. rostrata); S to WY, CO and CA.

Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Climate

The climate type for this species, as reported in the: "British Columbia plant species codes and selected attributes. Version 6 Database" (Meidinger et al. 2008), is not evaluated, unknown or variable.

Synonyms and Alternate Names

Crepis modocensis subsp. typica Babc. & Stebbins
Psilochenia modocensis (Greene) W.A. Weber

Taxonomic and Nomenclatural Links

Additional Photo Sources

General References