Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons

Order: Asterales

Family: Asteraceae (Compositae) -- sunflower

Common Name: western hawkweed, hairy Albert

Species Code: HIAL, HISCA

Origin: Native to dry to mesic open grasslands and open forests of western North America from British Columbia to Oregon and east to Montana and Wyoming.

Rare: no

Form: forb, perennial, erect, densely coarsely white pubescent throughout, sometimes also finely stellate, 30-100 cm tall, sap milky. Differs from H. cynoglossoides primarily on being more setose and not having an obviously glandular involucre. The two species grade into one another and may be considered a single species.

Duration: perennial

Habitat Type: prairie, forest

Wetland Indicator Status: not listed

Leaves: short petiolate, elongated, margins entire; lower cauline leaves 10-25 cm long and 1-3 cm wide, crowded; becoming reduced and more distant upward.

Mature height: 12-22 inches

Flowers: few to numerous, involucre 7-12 cm high, densely setose with long eglandular bristles; ligulate flowers perfect, yellow; ray flowers lacking.

Flower color: yellow

Bloom: June, July

Bloom starts on: mid June

Bloom ends on: mid July with a few flowers on some plants extending into early August

Fruit: achene, 3-3.5 mm long, cylindric, reddish brown; pappus whitish to tawny.

Characteristics:
Differs from H. cynoglossoides primarily by being more setose and lacking an obviously glandular involucre. The two species grade into one another and are sometimes considered a single species. H. albertinum also grades into H. scouleri and may be classified as a variety of H. scouleri. Other authors combine H. albertinum and H. cynoglossoides as H. cynoglossoides.
727,156 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center 2005).
Reproduces sexually by seed.
Perennating organ is a caudex.
Apomixis is common in the genus.
n=9 (University of British Columbia 2003).
Hieracium species which reproduce sexually are diploids (2n=18), while species which are apomictic are triploids (2n=27) (Flora of North America Editorial Committee 1993+).
Flowers are all ligulate and perfect.
Diploids only are known.
Native Americans chewed the coagulated milky sap like gum (Craighead et al 1963).
Fruit is an achene.
Seeds are windborne.
Sheep graze it and it rapidly disappears from range under heavy use (Craighead et al 1963).

Comments: Other names include houndstongue hawkweed, Hieracium cynoglossoides, Hieracium scouleri var. albertinum.

Sun requirement: full sun

Soil moisture: xeric to mesic

Precipitation: 14-30 inches for H. scouleri (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).

Sowing time: not known, probably best sown in the fall

Transplant time: spring

Stratification: not required

Seed yield: medium

Seed harvest: July

Seed first harvest: difficult

Seed cleaning: medium difficulty

Planting duration: long

Seed insect problem: none noted

Seed shatter: high

Seed size: medium

Seed harvest date: July

Seed comments: Flowering and seed ripening is indeterminate. Seeds are wind dispersed. Pappus is easily removed.

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Key words: native perennial upland forb

Propagation:
1 protocol in the Native Plant Network
Pullman WA Plant Materials Center

Notes: Hieracium albertinum is certainly one of the best possibilities in local natives for a widely popular ornamental. Plants are covered with short, soft hairs. Looks especially great in the morning or evening when backlit by the sun. Its yellow flowers are rather common looking. Blooms in late June. No good information on seed germination requirements. Other names include western hawkweed, hairy Albert, houndstongue hawkweed, Hieracium cynoglossoides, Hieracium scouleri var. albertinum (Skinner et al 2005).

References:
Craighead, John J., Frank C. Craighead, and Ray J. Davis. 1963. A Field Guide to Rocky Mountain Wildflowers. Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston, MA.

Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+. Flora of North America North of Mexico. 7+ vols. New York and Oxford. Oxford University Press. Online at http://www.fna.org/FNA/

Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005. Characteristics and Uses of Native Palouse Forbs in Landscaping. USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center and Palouse Prairie Foundation. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf

University of British Columbia. 2003. British Columbia Flora. University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research. Online at http://www.bcflora.org/ Accessed 1/1/06.

USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 24 September 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

USDA NRCS, Pullman Plant Materials Center. 2005. Seed Weights of Some Palouse Native Species. Pullman Plant Materials Center, Pullman, Washington. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/~pmc_nrcs/Docs/Seed_Weights_Palouse_Native_Species.pdf

Links:

Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species description from Flora of North America
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium