Crepis vesicaria ssp. taraxacifolia

General:
Annual or biennial or rarely perennial herb from a woody, sometimes thickened taproot and a simple or divided stem-base; stems erect, solitary to several, often branched near the base as well as above, more or less purplish, grooved, more or less woolly-hairy, 30-80 cm tall.

Leaves:
Basal leaves numerous, mostly narrowly oblanceolate, 10-20 cm long, 2-4 cm wide, pinnately cut or lyrately pinnate with a large terminal lobe, the lower lobes pointing backwards, stalked, finely hairy on both sides of the blade with short, pale, glandless hairs; stem leaves few, similar, unstalked, abruptly sharp-pointed or with long-pointed tips, nearly entire to pinnately parted, the middle ones clasping.

Flowers:
Heads with strap-shaped flowers, several to many in a flat-topped inflorescence; involucres 8-12 mm tall, cylindric to bell-shaped; involucral bracts woolly-hairy, often glandular-hairy and usually with black glandless bristles, the outer ones 5-12, short, lanceolate or egg-shaped, spreading, less than a third the length of the 9-13 inner ones, these lanceolate, obtuse, becoming keeled and thickened at maturity; receptacles fringed with small hairs; ray flowers yellow, 9-12 mm long.

Fruits:
Achenes pale brown, 4.5-9 mm long, spindle-shaped, tapering to a slender beak as long or longer than the body of the achene, 10-ribbed; pappus white, of fine, soft, hairlike bristles, deciduous.

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia