Mouseear hawkweed (Hieracium pilosella)

Common Names: Mouse ear hawkweed

Description: Known to be allelopathic, in which the roots secrete substances that inhibit root growth. Also known for its medicinal properties.

Habit: Perennial herb with short rhizomes and fibrous roots that can reach a height of 4-12 inches.

Leaves: Elliptic, rosette, 1-4 inches long, 1/3 - 3/4 inch wide, blunt or pointed tip, toothless. Upper surface sparsely - moderately covered in spreading hairs that are 1/8 - 1/4 inch long. Lower surface is white in color due to dense, short, star-shaped hairs mixed with long, spreading hairs.

Stems: Stolons, leafy, rooting at the nodes. Flower stems covered in white, bristly hairs, blackish glandular and non-glandular hairs and are leafless.

Flowers: Single, 2-3 per stem, yellow in color, dandelion-like, 3/4 - 1 inch across, up to 120 petals, outer rays with red stripe on back; bracts have 2 layers, lance-linear in shape tapering to a point, densely covered in white, bristly hairs along with blackish glandular and non-glandular hairs.

Fruit and seeds: Purple or black in color, 2mm long, white to light brown hairs that are 5mm long.

Habitat: Native to Europe. Can be found in fields, waste areas, pastures, and roadsides.

Reproduction: By seed.

Monitoring and rapid response: Can be effectively controlled using any of several readily available general use herbicides such as 2, 4-D.

Credits: The information provided in this factsheet was gathered from Minnesota Wildflowers and Bugwood Wiki.

Individual species images that appear with a number in a black box are courtesy of the Bugwood.org network (http://www.invasive.org).Individual photo author credits may not be included due to the small display size of the images and subsequent difficulty of reading the provided text. All other images appear courtesy of Google (http://images.google.com).

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