I am trying to identify this plant for a friend of a friend. It was found in Eastern Missouri. It almost looks like a Chickory. I have found images of Yellow Hawkweed that look very similar. I did not take this photograph. I am pretty sure the image has been highly edited. I am almost positive the buds are not blue rather this is a side effect of the saturation being boosted to high.
Thanks again!
Comments
2 thoughts on “What is this?”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Hmmm. No, I don’t think I know that plant – eastern Missouri is a bit out of my range, and I don’t own any guides to the Missouri flora. And in any case I would need more information. There are lots of plants with flowers that roughly resemble these. I’ve no idea how big the flowers are? What kind of leaves does the plant have? When was it in bloom? I don’t think hawkweed – doesn’t look much like any local (NJ/PA) hawkweed. Might be a lettuce (Lactuca sp.) of some kind. Are you familiar with skeleton weed, Chondrilla juncea? Try looking that one up. Where is it growing – forest, field, weedy vacant lot? If you went to a technical manual for the area (I’m not sure there is one) it would be in the same section as chicory, that’s for sure; it does look like a yellow chicory, as you suggest. Please see if you can find out a bit more about the plant, and maybe I can come up with ana nswer. I’ll be thinkng about it. Keep checking this site for a while.
Maybe somebody else can put a name to it.
Karl A.
Thinking more about it, those long, narrow, smooth buds make me think this is a wild lettuce of some kind. Here in NJ it would probably be Canada lettuce, Lactuca canadensis. Or it might be prickly lettuce, Lactuca serriola. Or it might be none of the above. As I said, I need more info. to nail down that i.d. Have you friend of a friend look up “wild lettuce” in the field guides, or go on line to see some pictures.
Karl A.