Flora of North America species comparison

usually 1, usually erect, (terete or 4-angled, often striate or sulcate) branched distally or ± throughout.

usually cauline (sometimes mostly basal); usually mostly opposite (distal sometimes alternate), rarely whorled;

petiolate or sessile;

blades (often pinnately or palmately lobed, sometimes compound), or lobes or leaflets, mostly deltate, elliptic, filiform, lanceolate, linear, oblanceolate, or ovate, ultimate margins entire or toothed, faces usually glabrous or glabrate, sometimes hairy (rarely, if ever, gland-dotted).

usually cauline; usually opposite, rarely whorled, distal sometimes alternate;

petiolate or sessile;

blades simple, compound (leaflets petiolulate), or 1–3+-pinnatisect or -pinnately lobed (submerged leaves multifid in B. beckii, an aquatic), ultimate margins entire, dentate, laciniate, serrate, or toothed, faces usually glabrous, sometimes hirtellous, hispidulous, pilosulous, puberulent, scabrellous, or strigillose.

mostly campanulate, cylindric, turbinate, or hemispheric or broader.

mostly hemispheric or campanulate to cylindric, (1–)4–12(–25+) mm diam.

mostly flat to convex, paleate (paleae often stramineous to white with red-brown to purplish striae, orbiculate to oblong or linear, ± flat to slightly cupped).

flat or slightly convex, paleate;

paleae usually falling, (usually stramineous, sometimes yellow to orange, with darker striae) ± flat to slightly navicular.

0 or 1–21+ (more in cultivars), pistillate and fertile, or neuter, or styliferous and sterile;

corollas usually yellow to orange (sometimes bicolored: yellow to orange with brown, red-brown, or purple), sometimes cyanic or white.

usually 1–21+ (often 3, 5, 8, or 13), sometimes 0, usually neuter, sometimes styliferous and sterile;

corollas usually yellow, sometimes white or pinkish.

3–150+, usually bisexual, fertile (functionally staminate in Dicranocarpus);

corollas usually yellow to orange, sometimes brown, red-brown, or purple, tubes usually shorter than, sometimes equaling funnelform throats (longer than throats in some Thelesperma spp.), lobes (3–)5, ± deltate to lance-ovate; (staminal filaments hairy in Cosmos) anther thecae pale or dark;

stigmatic papillae in 2 lines.

(5–)12–60(–150+), bisexual, fertile;

corollas usually yellow to orange, sometimes whitish [purplish], tubes shorter than throats, lobes (3–)5, ± deltate (staminal filaments glabrous; style-branch appendages deltate or lanceolate to subulate).

persistent, 3–34+ in ± 2 series (usually distinct, notably connate in Thelesperma), usually ± membranous, margins usually ± scarious.

persistent, mostly (4–)8–21(–30+) in ± 2 series, usually distinct, sometimes connate 0.05–0.1 their lengths, mostly oblong or ovate to lance-oblong, chartaceous to membranous or scarious (usually striate with brownish nerves, margins usually hyaline).

usually of 3–8(–21+) bractlets or bracts (usually ± herbaceous, usually shorter than phyllaries and/or reflexed, sometimes ± foliaceous and surpassing phyllaries).

of (3–)5–13(–21+) erect to spreading or reflexed, ± herbaceous (sometimes foliaceous) bractlets or bracts (sometimes surpassing phyllaries).

radiate or discoid, borne singly or in ± corymbiform, cymiform, or paniculiform arrays.

usually radiate or discoid, sometimes ± disciform, usually in corymbiform arrays, sometimes in 2s or 3s or borne singly.

usually either obcompressed to obflattened, usually cuneate, linear, oblong, orbiculate, or ovate (bodies unequally 3–4-angled, margins often winged), or (all or inner) ± equally 4-angled and linear-fusiform, sometimes ± beaked, faces glabrous or hairy (often striate, tuberculate, or papillate);

pappi 0, or persistent, of (1–)2–4(–8), usually ± barbellate awns or scales, rarely coroniform or of 1–2, smooth to ciliate or barbed awns or scales.

usually obcompressed to flat, unequally 3–4-angled, and cuneate to oblanceolate or obovate, sometimes (all or inner) ± equally 4-angled and linear-fusiform, rarely subterete, margins (± corky-winged in B. aristosa, B. cernua, and B. polylepis) usually retrorsely, sometimes patently or antrorsely, barbed or ciliate, apices sometimes attenuate, not beaked [beaked], faces smooth, striate, or ± tuberculate, glabrous or hairy, each sometimes with 2 grooves;

pappi 0, or persistent, of (1–)2–4(–8) usually retrorsely, sometimes antrorsely, barbellate or ciliate, rarely smooth, awns.

= 13.