FLORA OF ICELAND elements: Hieracium spp., hawkweed

Hieracium spp; The taxonomy of Hawkweeds is very complicated. First there is the "hawkweed" H. spp. (this photo), which is a very variable species. It is subdivided into "microspecies" (according to my information some 200 on Iceland - only the specialist can tell them apart). Like the dandelion (Taraxacum spp.) these plants do not fertilize egg cells with pollen sperm cells (be it cross or self fertilization) but rather form embryo's from normal cells. So the seed contains merely a clone of the parent plant. So there are no sexually breeding populations, each plant is but a clone from its parent palnt. Defining species than becomes tricky, so biologists just name it spp (meaning a species) because almost no biologist (let alone a layman) is able to tell to what (micro-)species an individual plant really belongs. To make things even more complex, there also exists a normal interbreeding Hieracium species on Iceland: Hieracium alpinum (Alpine Hawkweed). Also there is an hawkweed-named species which is a member of an other genus: Pilosella islandica (Icelandic Hawkweed). Alas I have no photo of this plant yet. Leontodon autumnalis (autumn hawkbit) also resembles hawkweeds. They are easily recognizable by there strongly incised shaped leaves ( see here)
It is member of the Compositae (syn.: Asteraceae) family, i.e. daisy family.

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