Pilosella lactucella(Wallr.) P.D.Sell & C.West

European hawkweed

WFO wfo-0000074418 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 7 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 7 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Pilosella lactucella, photographed by Wolfgang Jauch
fig. a Wolfgang Jauch, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-26 / obs. 200990768
Pilosella lactucella, photographed by Philipp
fig. b Philipp, CC0 1.0 / obs. 132714073
Pilosella lactucella, photographed by Christian Berg
fig. c Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 99838837
Pilosella lactucella, photographed by Christian Berg
fig. d Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 78972153
Pilosella lactucella, photographed by Christian Berg
fig. e Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 102910797
Pilosella lactucella, photographed by Wolfgang Jauch
fig. f Wolfgang Jauch, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200990929
Pilosella lactucella, photographed by Thomas Ebner
fig. g Thomas Ebner, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202214776
Pilosella lactucella, photographed by Thomas Ebner
fig. h Thomas Ebner, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 73526807

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 25 botanical countries

Regions where Pilosella lactucella is native: Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine AustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkFinlandFranceGermanyHungaryItalyNetherlandsNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandUkraine
Native distribution of Pilosella lactucella, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Austria AUT EUROPE
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Netherlands NET
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 104 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -13.3 °C -6.4 °C -1.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 14.9 °C 20.2 °C 24.4 °C
Annual rainfall 667 mm 1,268 mm 2,038 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 114 mm 205 mm 429 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 104 research-grade observations of Pilosella lactucella that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 58 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Hieracium acutisquamum (Nägeli & Peter) Prain
  • Hieracium acutisquamum (Nägeli & Peter) Üksip
  • Hieracium amaureilema N.P.
  • Hieracium amaureilema (Nägeli & Peter) Prain
  • Hieracium auricula subsp. acutisquamum Nägeli & Peter
  • Hieracium auricula subsp. amaureilema Nägeli & Peter
  • Hieracium auricula subsp. beverianum Nägeli & Peter
  • Hieracium auricula subsp. coniophorum Nägeli & Peter
  • Hieracium auricula subsp. lampreilema Nägeli & Peter
  • Hieracium auricula subsp. lithuanicum Nägeli & Peter
  • Hieracium auricula subsp. littuanicum Nägeli & Peter
  • Hieracium auricula subsp. magnauricula Nägeli & Peter
  • Hieracium auricula subsp. magnum Nägeli & Peter
  • Hieracium auricula subsp. melaneilema Peter
  • Hieracium auricula subsp. micranthum Zahn
  • Hieracium auricula subsp. tricheilema Nägeli & Peter
  • Hieracium auricula subsp. ventricatum Nägeli & Peter
  • Hieracium auricula var. acutisquamum (Nägeli & Peter) Nyár.
  • Hieracium auricula var. magnauricula (Nägeli & Peter) E.I.Nyardy
  • Hieracium lactucella Wallr.
  • Hieracium lactucella subsp. acutisquamum
  • Hieracium lactucella subsp. amaureilema (Nägeli & Peter) O.Bolòs & Vigo
  • Hieracium lactucella subsp. beverianum
  • Hieracium lactucella subsp. lactucella

and 34 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol HILA10. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.