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big-head rabbit-tobacco, bighead pygmycudweed

Photo is of parent taxon
Habit Plants grayish green to silvery, 3–15 cm, sericeous to lanuginose. Plants mostly grayish green, 3–15 cm, loosely lanuginose.
Stems

mostly 2–10;

branches proximal and distal (distal opposite or, sometimes, appearing alternate when unequal), rarely none.

mostly 2–10;

branches ± equal, distal mostly spreading to ascending.

Leaves

largest 7–15 × 2–4 mm;

capitular leaves subtending glomerules, also visible between and surpassing heads.

largest 9–15 × 2–4 mm;

capitular leaves usually ± spreading, scarcely involucral, not or scarcely carinate, pliant to somewhat rigid.

Receptacles

broadly or narrowly conic, 0.4–0.6 mm or ± 0.9–1.1 mm, heights 0.5–0.7 or 2–2.4 times diams.

broadly conic, 0.4–0.6 mm, heights mostly 0.5–0.7 times diams.

Bisexual florets

0.

Heads

in strictly dichasiform or pseudo-polytomous arrays (sometimes appearing monochasiiform), cylindric to ± ellipsoid, 3.5–4.5 mm, heights 2–3 times diams.

4–40+ in largest glomerules.

Cypselae

± angular, obcompressed, mostly 0.9–1.2 mm.

Pistillate

paleae imbricate, longest 2.5–4 mm.

paleae: longest 3.3–4 mm.

Staminate

paleae ± 3, apices erect to somewhat spreading, ± plane.

Functionally

staminate florets 2–4;

ovaries partly developed, 0.4–0.6 mm;

corollas hidden in heads, actinomorphic, 1.4–2 mm, glabrous, lobes equal.

Diaperia prolifera

Diaperia prolifera var. prolifera

Phenology Flowering and fruiting (Apr–)May–Jun(–Sep).
Habitat Dry, open, often disturbed silty to clay soils, barren to grassy, brushy, or wooded slopes, plains, prairies, toward s and e usually over carbonate (limestone, chalk)
Elevation 90–1500(–2200) m (300–4900(–7200) ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; CO; KS; LA; MO; MS; MT; NE; NM; OK; SD; TX; WY
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; AR; CO; KS; LA; MO; MS; MT; NE; NM; OK; SD; TX; WY
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

Intermediates between the two varieties of Diaperia prolifera occur where their ranges meet in central Texas and central Oklahoma. The strictly dichasiform or pseudo-polytomous branching pattern of D. prolifera is distinctive and diagnostic within the genus. Specimens of D. prolifera from introductions around a wool mill in South Carolina (G. L. Nesom 2004c, as Evax prolifera) are as yet undetermined to variety and are not included in the distributions below.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Variety prolifera occupies a broad crescent from western South Dakota and southeastern Montana to northeastern New Mexico, central and eastern Texas (nearly to Mexico), southern Missouri, and southwestern Arkansas, with outliers in chalk prairies of southern Mississippi and southern Alabama. A specimen of it (mixed with other Californian Filagininae) collected in 1903 is purportedly from southern California; it might represent an introduction that did not persist or an accidental admixture from another collection.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
1. Plants grayish to greenish, loosely lanuginose; heads 4–40+ in largest glomerules; receptacle heights mostly 0.5–0.7 times diams.; capitular leaves usually ± spreading, scarcely involucral, not or scarcely carinate, pliant to somewhat rigid; distal branches mostly spreading to ascending; longest pistillate paleae 3.3–4 mm
var. prolifera
1. Plants silvery white, tightly sericeous; heads borne singly, or 2–3 in largest glomerules; receptacle heights mostly 2–2.4 times diams.; capitular leaves erect, involucral, proximally carinate, becoming indurate; distal branches strictly ascending to erect; longest pistillate paleae 2.5–3.2 mm
var. barnebyi
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 462. FNA vol. 19, p. 463.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Gnaphalieae > Diaperia Asteraceae > tribe Gnaphalieae > Diaperia > Diaperia prolifera
Sibling taxa
D. candida, D. verna
D. prolifera var. barnebyi
Subordinate taxa
D. prolifera var. barnebyi, D. prolifera var. prolifera
Synonyms Evax prolifera
Name authority (Nuttall ex de Candolle) Nuttall: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 338. (1840) unknown
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