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Pyrrhopappus carolinianus
Carolina Desertchicory
False Dandelion
Florida native
A frequent wildflower of dry hammocks and disturbed sites throughout most of the panhandle, north Florida and the central peninsula south into Sarasota, Desoto, Highlands and Indian River Counties. The range extends throughout the southeast and surrounding states west into Texas to Nebraska, north into Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Pennsylvania, northeast into Delaware.
Similar to common dandelion but with stem leaves. The lemon-yellow flowers may be single stalked or in loose, corymbiform arrays. Flowers have from 50 to 150 ray florets, typically with toothed tips. Disk florets are absent and dark filaments are usually visible in the center. Blooms all year. The stem and branches are smooth or only minutely hairy. Both basal and alternate stem leaves are present and are narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate and toothed or lobed.
Wildflowers with similar flowers, but with fewer florets, no dark filaments and hairy stems are hawkweeds, such as queen-devil.
The bee seen on the flower in one of these photos is the Carolina desert-chicory sweat bee.
Pyrrhopappus carolinianus is a member of the Asteraceae - Aster family.
Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants (Institute for Systemic Botany) profile for this species
USDA Plant Profile for this species
Date record last modified: Jan 18, 2023
