Modoc Hawksbeard

Crepis modocensis is a perennial herb growing an erect stem up to 45 centimeters (18 inches) tall and often lined with long bristles. The woolly and sometimes bristly leaves are dark-veined and edged with blunt and sharp lobes. The longest leaves at the base of the plant reach about 25 centimeters (10 inches) long. The inflorescence bears one to ten flower heads about 5 cm (2 in) in diameter with rough or bristly phyllaries and up to 60 yellow ray florets but no disc florets. The fruit is an achene around a centimeter long which is black, sometimes green or red tinted, and sports a tufty white pappus.

Subspecies Crepis modocensis subsp. glareosa (Piper) Babc. & Stebbins – Kittitas County in Washington Crepis modocensis subsp. modocensis – most of species range Crepis modocensis subsp. rostrata (Coville) Babc. & Stebbins – British Columbia, Washington Crepis modocensis subsp. subacaulis (Kellogg) Babc. & Stebbins – California, Montana, Nevada, Oregon C. modocensis may have hybridized with Crepis atribarba to produce Crepis barbigera, the head size of which is intermediate between its prospective parent species.