Images: ©Jouko Lehmuskallio
Spotted Cat's Ear
Hypochoeris maculata
- Written also: Spotted Cat’s-ear
- Family: Dandelion Family – Cichoriaceae (Compositae)
- Growing form: Perennial herb.
- Height: 40–70 cm (16–28 in.)
- Flower: Over 200 small flowers (florets) form a ca. 5 cm (2 in.) wide head (a capitulum). Corolla yellow, strap-shaped, with 5-toothed tip. Calyx modified into a pappus. Involucral bracts in several whorls; outer green, stiff, triangular, sharp-pointed, bristly; inner slender, with membranous margins, and densely fringed near the tip. Pistil formed from 2 fused carpels. Stamens 5. Head terminating a long inflorescence-stalk.
- Leaves: Borne in a rosette. Entire, almost stalkless, fairly large, stout, prostrate, bristly. Blade tongue-shaped, with rounded tip, sparsely and shallowly toothed. Midrib prominent, often reddish. Inflorescence-stalk usu. with one small leaf.
- Fruit: A stalked, plumed cypsela.
- Habitat: Sunny slopes on eskers, damp forests, forest gaps, sandy hillside meadows, rock outcrops, wayside meadows.
- Flowering time: July–August.
The cat’s ears (Hypochoeris spp.) are a group of approximately 60 species most of which are Eurasian or South American. In Europe there are nine species, five of which occur solely in the Mediterranean region.
The spotted cat’s ear is a latex-containing insect-pollinated species usually with a single flower head. In Finland, it is a fairly demanding species typically occurring on eskers. It is somewhat continental and requires summer warmth in particular.
