Stems: many from a tap-root, diffusely branched. Leaves: entire, or nearly so, radical ones spattilate, cauline ones lanceolate to linear. Flowers: in small numerous-clustered heads. Fruit: achenes linear-fusiform, minutely scabrous on equal narrow ribs, attenuate into a short slender beak; pappus copious of very slender white bristles.

The Hawksbeards are all yellow, and their rays are squared and finely toothed at the tips, a characteristic which enables the traveller to at once distinguish them from the Arnicas, to which they bear a strong resemblance.

The Hawksbeards are not very pretty or very interesting flowers, yet they contribute their share of golden strands to Nature's summer carpet.

Crepis nana, or Alpine Hawksbeard, is a small alpine species that grows at an altitude of 8000 feet, on barren rocky ground. It is a tiny plant, forming tufts and bearing many clusters of small flowers.