Cretan weed is a small annual herb in the daisy family, native to the Mediterranean and nearby areas, that looks like a dandelion with bristly leaves and stems. It is a wild weed rather than a commonly grown garden plant, and it grows best in sunny, dry, open ground.
Family
Asteraceae (Daisy family)
Grows as
Annual
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly; it tolerates dry conditions once established and needs little extra water.
Soil
Well-drained, poor to average soil; tolerates sandy or rocky ground.
Temperature
10–25 °C; tolerates mild winters but is killed by hard frost.
How easy
Easy
Native range
Macaronesia, Medit. to Arabian Pen.
Climate
subtropical
About
Hedypnois rhagadioloides, the Cretanweed or scaly hawkbit, is a species of plant in the tribe Cichorieae within the family Asteraceae. It is native to the Mediterranean Region and neighboring areas from Canary Islands to Iran, and naturalized in Australia and in parts of the Americas (southwestern United States, Baja California in Mexico, central Chile).
Hedypnois rhagadioloides is a variably hairy/hispid annual herb with flower stalks up to 40 centimeter (16 inches) stall, most of the leaves gathered around the base resembling the common dandelion except for the bristles. Leaves are green or purplish, up to 18 centimeters (7.2 inches) long. The plant produces a flower stalk with one single flower head or a flat-topped array of several heads. The head has rows of phyllaries that may be very bristly, and the head is egg-shaped when still closed.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Hedypnois rhagadioloides by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.