Flora of North America species comparison

(sometimes in 3s or 4s) sessile;

blades obovate or elliptic to lanceolate or linear, (20–)50–100(–160+) × (5–)10–25(–40+) mm, bases cuneate to rounded, margins usually coarsely dentate to serrate, sometimes ciliate, apices acute to acuminate, faces glabrous.

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).

(10–)20–60 mm.

turbinate to hemispheric or broader, (4–)6–8(–10+) × 8–12+ mm.

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

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).

usually 7–8, rarely 0;

laminae orange-yellow, (10–)15–25(–30) mm.

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.

(25–)60–100(–150+);

corollas yellow to orange-yellow, 3–6.5 mm.

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.

8–12, ovate or obovate to lance-oblong, (4–)6–8(–10+) mm (tips often orange to purplish, as are tips of paleae).

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

of 5–7(–9+) erect or spreading to reflexed, oblanceolate or lanceolate to linear, often foliaceous bractlets or bracts (6–)10–12(–20+) mm, margins usually ciliate, abaxial faces glabrous or bases hispidulous.

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

(erect at flowering, sometimes nodding in fruit) borne singly or in open, ± corymbiform arrays.

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

blackish, red-brown, or stramineous, obcompressed, flattened or unequally 3–4-angled, ± cuneate, outer 6–8 mm, inner 8–10 mm, margins retrorsely ciliate or barbed, apices ± truncate to convex, faces ± 1-nerved, ± striate, glabrous;

pappi of 2–4 ± erect, retrorsely barbed awns 3–5 mm.

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.

= 22, 24.