Flower:

Open cluster to 12 inches tall of 10 to 25 yellow dandelion-like flowers on long stalks. Flowers are ½ to 1 inch wide; floral bracts and flower stalks are green and covered to varying degrees in short glandular hairs. A small leafy bract is often on the stem where flower clusters branch.

Leaves and stems:

Leaves are 2 to 8 inches long, ½ to 2 inches wide, broadly oval-elliptic tapered to a dull point, smooth or with a few tiny teeth around the edges, hairy on both surfaces. Leaves near the base are largest, short stalked, and more densely packed on the stem, becoming smaller, stalkless, and more widely spaced as they ascend the stem. The main stem is covered with spreading hairs that are glandular only near the flower clusters. It has no stolons so doesn't produce mats.

Notes:

Fairly common, Sticky Hawkweed doesn't stand out amongst the many competing, similar species. Neither a practitioner of open meadow or deep woods, scattered populations along dry sandy tree lines is a helpful clue to its identity. The leaf shape and arrangement on the stem also distinguishes it from the more aggressive non-native hawkweeds.