Plants perennial, 15–60(80) cm; with stout taproots and woody crowns.
Stems erect or ascending, usually simple, rarely branched from near base, spiculate in ours.
Basal leaves narrowly to broadly oblanceolate or obovate, 5–15(30) cm, margins entire or toothed or shallowly lobed, lobes triangular, tips rounded, surfaces glabrous or hispid-puberulent; petioles short, winged.
Cauline leaves 0–few, similar to basal, reduced.
Inflorescences flat-topped or not.
Heads 3–30.
Involucres cylindric or campanulate, 8–21 mm.
Phyllaries outer deltoid; inner 10–15, lanceolate, usually hispid-glandular.
Florets 20–50; ligules 9–18 mm.
Fruits narrowed at tips or tapering, 3.5–8 mm, light to dark brown, 10–13-ribbed.
2n=22.
Central and western North America. 7 subspecies; 2 subspecies treated in Flora.
as described under Crepis runcinata
Perennials, 15-65 cm (taproots relatively long, caudices swollen). Stems 1-3, erect or ascending, scapiform, branched near middles, glabrous or hispid, sometimes stipitate-glandular distally. Leaves mostly basal (rosettes); petiolate; blades elliptic, lanceolate, linear, oblanceolate, obovate, or spatulate, 3-30 × 0.5-8 cm (bases attenuate) margins usually entire or weakly dentate, sometimes serrate, dentate, or pinnately lobed, apices rounded, faces glabrous or hispid to hispidulous (sometimes glaucous). Heads (1-)3-15(-30), borne singly or in ± corymbiform arrays. Calyculi of 5-12, narrowly triangular, glabrous or tomentulose bractlets 1-3 mm. Involucres turbinate-campanulate, 7-21 × 8-12 mm. Phyllaries 10-16, lanceolate or oblong, 8-10 mm, (bases keeled and thickened, margins scarious) apices usually acute, sometimes attenuate or obtuse (often ciliate-tufted), abaxial faces glabrous or tomentulose, sometimes stipitate-glandular, adaxial glabrous. Florets 20-50; corollas golden yellow, 9-18 mm. Cypselae dark to golden reddish or yellowish brown, fusiform, 3.5-8 mm, tapered distally or beaked, ribs 10-13 (strong); pappi white, 4-9 mm.Crepis runcinata is recognized by its basal rosettes of weakly dentate or almost entire leaves, scapiform stems, branching near middles, and reduced cauline leaves. The stems and leaves are usually glabrous. Multiple subspecies were described by E. B. Babcock (1947); the variation is continuous. Babcock suggested that this is the only American species that shows a relationship to Asian species.