LEONTODON L. - HAWKBIT
Scientific Description:
Rosulate perennial (rarely annual) herbs, taprooted, rhizomatous or tuberous. Indumentum of simple, forked or stellate hairs. Stems simple, subscapose or weakly branched, usually leafless, naked or bearing small bracts especially beneath capitula. Leaves oblanceolate to obovate, entire to dentate, incised or pinnatipartite. Capitulum homogamous, ligulate. Involucre ± ovoid; phyllaries purple (L. asperrimus). Achenes cylindrical to fusiform, longitudinally striate or ribbed, transversely rugulose or not, beaked or truncate at apex; all achenes with persistent plumose pappus, or marginal ones coronate.
Reference:
Kupicha FK (1975). Leontodon L., In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 5: 671.
Public Description:
Leontodon is a genus of perennial or rarely annual herbs known as “hawkbit”, is native to Eurasia and North Africa. There are approximately 79 species in the world and 6 species (8 taxa) in Türkiye. In the middle ages it was believed that the hawks sharpened their eyes by eating from these plants, and this reason was given to the English name “Hawkbit”. Seeds of Leontodon species are an important food source for certain bird species.
References:
Anonymous 1 (2016). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leontodon/, Accessed date: 21.01.2016.
Anonymous 2 (2016). https://gobotany.newenglandwild.org/genus/leontodon/, Accessed date: 21.01.2016.
Anonymous 3 (2016). http://www.theplantlist.org/1.1/browse/A/Compositae/Leontodon/, Accessed date: 21.01.2016.
Aslan S (2012). Leontodon L. In: Güner, A., Aslan, S., Ekim, T., Vural, M. & Babaç, M.T. (eds.), Türkiye Bitkileri Listesi (Damarlı Bitkiler). Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanik Bahçesi ve Flora Araştırmaları Derneği Yayını. İstanbul, pp. 182–183.
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