Leontodon saxatilis in Portugal

Lesser Hawkbit ( Leontodon saxatilis)  in Portugal (Atlantic Coast of Algarve)

Several yellow 'Dandelion' type flowers were seen in Portugal, some remained un-identified but Lesser Hawkbit was given away by its split hair tips and similarity to the plants seen in Britain.
Part 1 

Bracts quite hairy but well within limits seen in Britain and inner bracts have quite a nice dark edging which is often a good feature of L.saxatilis, whereas Rough Hawkbit ( Leontodon hispidus) tends to have less distinct brown edging where if present the brown merges into the green centre.  Grey petal underside banding typical of saxatilis is present. However underside petal banding can be absent in both saxatilis and hispidus giving all yellow petals, also both can show grey and red banding.
Outer bracts are adpressed typical of saxatilis and with red tips.  Stem thickens to meet the flower head, which is common in both saxatilis and hispidus.

Second photo shows the plant with its many flowers and leaves tending to stay close to the ground, which you would expect as surrounding vegetation is sparse and does not compete for light.
The leaves are sparsely hairy and this plant does not show any red based hairs on the midribs of the leaves, which can be a good feature of saxatilis if present.
Plant structure has the flowers on un-branched stems and no leaves on the stems.

Leaf shape typical in shape and could be either more or less lobed.

Main feature of the leaf is the split ended hairs which is the distinctive feature of hispidus and saxatilis.  Hairs are quite sparse and some are simple without the split end, whereas many have the tip split into two ( occasionally 3 or 4).

The plant photographed was growing in a rural setting about a kilometre from the sea and seems to conform to a typical L.saxatilis that could be growing in the UK.  Move to a more extreme habitat of the sea facing cliff top and things get more difficult.

Part 2

Habitat shot of cliff edge. Not much competition here but some nice small yellow flowers to look at.

First thing to stand out was the very fleshy nature of the leaves. They were much thicker than normal and very strange. First thing to check was the presence of the split hairs to at least confirm we have a Leontodon.

Good news is that split ended hairs are present so I was pretty sure these plants are Leontodon despite the very fleshy leaves. One other variation is that some split hairs have the very tips hooked, more like the split ends of Hawkwed Oxtongue. I have never seen this in the UK when looking for 3 and 4 tipped hairs. See near the top of the photo.

Having decided that these plants are Leontodon next step is to look at the flowers and see what features they have.

First impression is this looks more like saxatilis than hispidus with limited hairiness on the bracts and outer bracts adpressed. These outer bracts are shorter that normal and red in colour, but the whole plant was small due to the habitat so one might expect some odd features. The longer inner bracts are not showing the dark brown edging that can be typical of saxatilis but it is not a 100% feature and this is Portugal.

 Another flower showing no hairs showing that the amount of hairiness within this cliff top population does vary. Some dark edging present at bract tips but not as distinct as often seen in the UK.

Rosette of leaves staying low to the ground typical of saxatilis but even hispidus will do this when competition is low which is certainly true at this site.

Example of small but very fleshy leaf. Might just be red based hairs on the mid-rib.

Post flowering head showing a lot of red on both lower and inner bracts that was a common feature of plants in this population.

A final photo shows a new flower bud and the fleshy leaves.  Of course, the one thing I did not do was to check the main ID feature of the outer achenes, to see if they had the short scales. At the time I thought I had to wait for the seed heads to form, before you could check this feature.   I now know it is possible to see this feature in post flowering heads. These photos were taken back in Mid April 2016 when I had less experience with Leontodons.

These photos were taken on the Atlantic coast between Praia da Arrifana and Monte Clerigo west of Aljezur in Southern Portugal.

Conclusion. The very thick fleshy leaves, of what I think are L.saxatilis are possibly a good example of considerable variation within this species. It may be an adaptation to the exposed coastal habitat including some salt spray. Having said that many of the secondary features are worthwhile, rather than only relying on the main ID feature of the outer achenes having short scales.

Postscript.  Found a rather good site that has some super photos of Leontodon in Portugal at

http://flora-on.pt/#/0vAe8

This Portugal site uses the old name for L. saxatilis, L. taraxacoides and it would appear that in Portugal it splits into two sub-species, L. taraxacoides subs longirostris which is local but widespread throughout Portugal and looks very similar to the first plants I found (http://flora-on.pt/#/0Tjf8)

The second sub-species is called L. taraxacoides subs taraxacoides and that has the fleshy  leaves and conforms to the plants on the sea cllifs , part 2.  ( http://flora-on.pt/#/0vAe8 ). 

This second sub-species is also widespread but more local in distribution, see maps below the photographs on the site. How reliable these sub-species are in terms of features is not known. L.hispidus is very rare in Portugal occurring in just one small area in the middle of the country ref the flora-on site map.  

Subspecies longirostris is found in Southern Europe, but L. taraxacoides.taraxacoides with the fleshy leaves is the same species as found in the UK. The key difference is the length of the beak of inner achenes being 1mm in L. taraxacoides.taraxacoides and 2-3mm in L . taraxacoides subs longirostris. 
I did not find any plants with seed heads to check this feature at the time.  Strange thing is the fleshy leaved plants looked very different to those seen in the UK so we are back to geographical variation and possibly adaptation to a very dry cliff top habitat.  


22nd January 2018

Peter Leonard

Rampton