Brickellia cylindracea |
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gravelbar brickellbush |
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Habit | Perennials, 40–120 cm (caudices woody). |
Stems | branched, pubescent, gland-dotted. |
Leaves | mostly opposite, sometimes alternate or subopposite; petioles 0–3 mm; blades 3-nerved from bases, lanceolate to obovate, 20–60 × 12–30 mm, bases ± cuneate, margins crenate to serrate, apices obtuse to acute, abaxial faces tomentose, often densely gland-dotted as well (venation raised, reticulate), adaxial faces pubescent and gland-dotted. |
Peduncles | 2–15 mm, densely tomentose, often gland-dotted. |
Involucres | cylindric to campanulate, 8–13 mm. |
Florets | 10–21; corollas greenish, yellow, or yellow-orange, often purple-tinged, 5–7 mm. |
Phyllaries | 18–22 in 5–7 series, greenish, often purplish-tinged, 6–8-striate, unequal, margins scarious (apices acute to acuminate); outer ovate (sparsely villous, gland-dotted, lengths no more than 1/2 inner, margins long-ciliate), inner narrowly lanceolate to linear-oblong (glabrous). |
Heads | in ± dense, racemiform or paniculiform arrays. |
Cypselae | 3.5–5 mm, sparsely to densely pubescent; pappi of 30–35, white to tawny, barbellate bristles. |
2n | = 18. |
Brickellia cylindracea |
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Phenology | Flowering Jun–Nov. |
Habitat | Dry limestone hillsides |
Elevation | 100–600 m (300–2000 ft) |
Distribution |
TX |
Discussion | L. D. Flyr (1970) rightly noted that Brickellia cylindracea is variable in leaf size, shape, and texture as well as arrangements of heads, and added that it is not easily distinguished from B. conduplicata (= B. lemmonii var. conduplicata), which accounts for most of the specimens in west Texas. Brickellia cylindracea has a more eastern distribution than B. lemmonii var. conduplicata and appears to have a strong preference for limestone soils. Some specimens from limestone outcrops in west Texas blur distinction between the two species. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 21, p. 497. |
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Eupatorieae > Brickellia |
Sibling taxa | |
Name authority | A. Gray & Engelmann: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 1: 46. (1847) |
Web links |