Medium to tall plant stem erect usually unbranched, leaves linear lanceolate, channelled, the stem leaves clasping and tapered to a fine point. Flowerheads bright yellow, 18 to 40 mm flower bracts – usually 8 to 10 and twice as long as the rays sometimes with pale reddish margin. Fruit a large off-white clock. Flowers open only prior to 1 pm.

Rough grassy places.

June and July.

Annual or short lived perennial.

Common throughout England, scarcer in parts of Scotland and Wales. The most common form in Britain is ssp. Minor.

Common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 450 of the 617 tetrads.