Smallflower oxtongue

Picris pauciflora is an annual herb with a rosette growth form, reaching 10-50 cm in height. Its flowering stems are ribbed and covered with two-barbed bristles, often branching. Rosette leaves are narrowly elliptic or obovate, 2-12 cm long, with entire or pinnatifid margins. Cauline leaves are subentire or entire. The peduncle is up to 15 cm long and constricted at the apex in fruit. The involucre is 8-12 mm long, with outer bracts 3-6 mm long and inner bracts linear or narrowly oblong. The corolla is yellow, with a 4 mm tube and an 8 mm ligule. Achenes are fusiform, 4-6 mm long, and brown, with a white, caducous pappus.