Cat's Ear

Cat's Ear photos

Family: Daisy (Asteraceae syn. Compositae)

Scientific Name:

Hypochoeris radicata

Cat's-ear plants growing through senesced Salt-marsh Grass
Photo: A J Brown

Other Common Names:

Flat-weed, Common Cat’s-ear, Hairy Cat’s-ear, False Dandelion, Long-rooted Cat’s-ear, Hawkweed

Status:

Native to Europe. Naturalised throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Plant Description:

Perennial herb to 80 cm tall and oblanceolate (lance-shaped with point attached to stem) leaves 2-30 cm long and 10-40 mm wide. Leaf margins are toothed to slightly lobed. Leaf surfaces are rough and covered in short stiff hairs.

Flower-heads are 20-30 mm across on leafless and slightly scaly stems. Flowers are bright yellow. The fruit is a cypsela or achene (dry, indehiscent and one-seeded), 8-17 mm long with a long beak.

Habitat:

Common and widespread weed across Victoria, particularly in wetter environments, invading native vegetation as well as disturbed areas. Appears to have some tolerance to salinity as it occurs on heavier ground around the edges of saline lakes and swamps.

Region	Salinity Class	Waterlogging Class
Mallee, Loddon Murray	S0, S1	W1, W2, W3
Central and Northern, Wimmera, Western, Gippsland	S0, S1, S2	W0, W1, W2, W3

Comments:

Cat’s-ear belongs to a group of mainly yellow-flowered daisies in the Tribe Lactuceae. The plants in this tribe are characterised by having a basal rosette of leaves (flat-weeds), milky sap in their stems and their flower-heads consisting entirely of ray florets (i.e. no ‘eye’ to the daisy). Cat’s-ear is very similar to other ‘flat-weeds’ such as Lesser Hawkbit and Smooth Cat’s ear. From the former it differs in having branched and scaly stems and from the latter in its hairy leaves and ‘petals’ that are much longer than its involucre (flower-head cup). See Key to Yellow Daisy Flat-weeds.

Cat's Ear Photos

Young rosette of leaves - Cat's-ear Photo: A J Brown	Hairy leaves of Cat's-ear Photo: A J Brown
Flowering plant of Cat's-ear Photo: A J Brown	Flower and involucre of Cat's ear Photo: A J Brown
Fruit with pappus attachment of Cat's-ear Photo: A J Brown	Branching stem of Cat's-ear Photo: A J Brown
Cat's-ear flower Photo: A J Brown

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