Slender Hawksbeard: Crepis atribarba ssp. atribarba (Synonyms: Crepis atribarba ssp. cytotaxonomicorum, Crepis atribarba ssp. typicus, Crepis atribarba var. cytotaxonomicorum, Psilochenia atribarba)

Slender hawksbeard is a perennial wildflower with several erect stems arising 15-70 cm high. The herbage varies from gray tomentulose (especially when young) to gabrous. The basal and lower stem leaves are deeply pinnatifid with a narrow central stem and linear to lance-linear segments, each of which has entire margins. The lower leaves vary from 10-35 cm long. The upper leaves are linear with entire margins.

The 3-40 flower heads are found at the tips of the stems. Each dandylion-like flower head contains 10-40 yellow ray flowers. The individual flower corollas range from 10-18 mm long. The involucre measures from 8-15 mm high, often containing some glandless black bristles although in some plants, the involucres may be glabrous. The outer bracts usually measure less than one-half as long as the inner 8-10 bracts.

Slender hawksbeard is a plant of dry, open places in the foothills and mountains.

Slender hawksbeard may be found from southern British Columbia south along the east side of the Cascade Mts. to central Nevada and central Colorado and east to Alberta.

In the Columbia River Gorge, Crepis atrabarba may be found east of The Dalles, OR between the elevations of 200'-600'

Photo at left of the long, narrow leaf of slender hawksbeard. Note the narrow lobes. Photographed near Rimrock Lake in Moses Coulee, central Washington..........June 6, 2009. The photo at right shows slender hawksbeard as seen high atop the slopes to the northwest of the headquarters compound at Cottonwood Canyon State Park.......March 18, 2016.

An example of slender hawksbeard found on a rocky viewpoint at the high terminus of the Valley Trail, Little Spokane River Natural Area, Spokane County, Washington.......July 5, 2011. These individuals lack the bristle-like setae on the involucral bracts.

Examples of slender hawksbeard as seen on bunchgrass grasslands at the Davis Canyon Natural Area Preserve, Okanogan County, Washington.........June 11, 2011. Note that this population has bristle-like setae on the involucral bracts.

Slender hawksbeard as seen in big sagebrush scrub about one mile north of Washington Highway 24 in the Wahluke Unit of the Hanford Reach National Monument..........May 13, 2013.

Slender hawksbeard growing amongst spurred lupine (Lupinus arbustus) and Raynold's sedge (Carex raynoldsii) near Table Rock, Monument Rock Wilderness.................August 3, 2011.

Slender hawksbeard in bloom along the Amelia Creek Trail #1973 several hundred yards southwest of the ridge crest at Bullrun Rock, Monument Rock Wilderness......July 9, 2023. Tapertip hawksbeard (Crepis acuminata) is also found at this spot.

Slender hawksbeard (ssp. atrabarba) as found near Blue Sky, Hart Mt. National Antelope Refuge in south-central Oregon.....July 5, 1996.