EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Dwarf Hawksbeard

Dwarf Hawksbeard (Crepis nana), Family Asteraceae
Gates of the Arctic National Park, Alaska

Explanation:  Here is an incredibly widely-distributed and utterly lovely member of the dandelion and sunflower family with an odd name:  a dwarf hawksbeard.  

Although found as far afield as North America, northern and central Asia, and even western China, I located these specimens in the most remote and the most little-visited national park of the United States:  Gates of the Arctic National Park in northern Alaska.  Getting here entailed a bush flight, landing on a cobble riverbed.  But that's another story.

 

Here in the high Alaskan arctic, I found dwarf hawksbeards
growing solitarily in otherwise unvegetated river cobble
that likely floods annually.  Its deep taproot likely accounts
for its capacity to anchor itself well and draw water from the subsurface.

A single plant can have more than 80 flowers!
Moreover, the genus Crepis has about 200 species!

The dwarf hawksbeard is not large, with stems only 4-6 inches.  OK, this accounts for the "dwarf" part of the name.  

But ... "hawksbeard?"  

After a bit of a search, I could not find any information on the origin or etymology of "hawksbeard."  
And I hesitate to speculate (do hawks have beards?) ...