Montane, subalpine, alpine. Meadows.  Summer, fall.
Lake Hope Trail, August 11, 2009.

Hieracium tristis is a minutely slender plant often lost in the greenery of other more robust plants. In this photograph, the more robust plant slanting from lower right to upper left and crossing behind the ruler at about the six inch mark, is Rosy Paintbrush, Castilleja rhexifolia. To see the Hieracium triste plant, start at its basal leaves at the bottom of the photograph and follow the two leafless, very slender stems upward to the quite small flower heads at the six inch and ten inch marks on the ruler.  The leaves in the upper right belong to Marsh Marigolds, Caltha leptosepala. 

Look for Hieracium tristis blooming at high altitudes in late summer and early fall and a bit earlier as low as 7,500 feet.

This species was named Hieracium triste by Carl Willdenow in the description by Kurt Sprengel in 1826. William Jackson Hooker named the plant Hieracium gracile in 1833 and Löve and Löve renamed it Chlorocrepis tristis in 1975.

Hieracium is, according to botanical Latin expert William Stearn, the classical name given to various composite flowers in the Mediterranean area and the word is supposedly derived from the Greek word for "Falcon". Thus the plants are still commonly called, "Hawkweeds".

"Chloro" is Greek for "green" and "crepis" is a name given by Pliny several thousand years ago to a now unknown plant.  "Tristis" is Latin for "dull" or "sad" and "gracilis" is Latin for "slender".

Montane, subalpine, alpine. Meadows.  Summer, fall.
Lake Hope Trail, August 11, 2009 and Lizard Head Trail, August 4, 2010.

Flower heads are usually covered with a mixture of longer silky-silvery hairs and shorter bristly-glandular black hairs.

In the manner common to many Asteraceae, fertilized flowers explode into a mass of pappus hairs which will carry seeds on the winds.

Montane, subalpine, alpine. Meadows.  Summer, fall.
Lake Hope Trail, August 11, 2009.

Basal leaves can range from hairy to glabrous, from smooth-margined to slightly serrated, and from long and narrow to almost circular (always with petioles).

Range map © John Kartesz,
Floristic Synthesis of North America

State Color Key

Species present in state and native
Species present in state and exotic
Species not present in state

County Color Key

Species present and not rare
Species present and rare
Species extirpated (historic)
Species extinct
Species noxious
Species exotic and present
Native species, but adventive in state
Eradicated
Questionable presence

Range map for Hieracium triste