Erigeron grandiflorus |
Erigeron nematophyllus |
|
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large-flower daisy, large-flower fleabane, onestem fleabane, Rocky Mountain alpine fleabane |
needle-leaf fleabane |
|
Habit | Perennials, 2–25 cm; rhizomatous, fibrous-rooted, caudices or rhizomes crownlike or branches relatively short and thick. | Perennials, 4–18 cm; taprooted, caudex branches relatively short, thick. |
Stems | erect to decumbent-ascending, sparsely to moderately pilose to villoso-hirsute, often stipitate-glandular over all or part. |
erect (greenish), usually closely appressed-strigose, sometimes glabrate, eglandular. |
Leaves | basal (persistent) and cauline (petioles equaling or shorter than blades); blades oblanceolate to obovate or spatulate, 10–60(–90) × 3–8(–14) mm, cauline abruptly or gradually reduced distally, margins entire (apices rounded), faces sparsely hirsutulous or villous to sparsely strigose or glabrate, sometimes sparsely glandular. |
mostly basal or basal (persistent, persistent portion relatively long and slender-fibrous) and cauline (greenish); basal blades 1-nerved linear to linear-oblanceolate or oblanceolate or narrowly spatulate, (20–)30–80 × (0.5–)1–3 mm; cauline reduced distally (bases attenuate, not thickened and whitish-indurate) margins entire (apices obtuse or rounded), faces abaxially glabrous or glabrate, adaxially sparsely strigose, eglandular. |
Involucres | 5–8(–10) × 8–20 mm. |
(3.5–)4-–6.5 × (5–)6–13 mm. |
Ray florets | 50–130; corollas blue to pink or purplish, rarely white, 7–11(–15) mm (mostly 1–2 mm wide), laminae coiling. |
15–55; corollas white to pink, 4–8 mm, laminae coiling. |
Disc corollas | 2.4–4(–5) mm. |
(2.8–)3.5–4.3 mm. |
Phyllaries | in 2–3 series (green or purplish), moderately to densely woolly-villous (hairs flattened, cross walls sometimes reddish), minutely glandular at least apically. |
in 2–4 series (greenish or sometimes purple, margins thickened), strigose to loosely strigoso-hirsute, sometimes more densely so on distal 1/3, sparsely minutely glandular. |
Heads | 1. |
1(–3 rarely, from branches at midstem). |
Cypselae | 1.8–2.4 mm, 2-nerved, faces strigose; pappi: outer of setae, inner of (7–)10–18(–22) bristles. |
2.2–2.9 mm, 2-nerved, faces and margins villoso-hirsute, sometimes more densely so on nerves; pappi: outer of setae, inner of 15–25 bristles. |
2n | = 18, 27. |
|
Erigeron grandiflorus |
Erigeron nematophyllus |
|
Phenology | Flowering Jul–Aug(–Sep). | Flowering May–Aug. |
Habitat | Rocky sites, meadows, alpine or near timberline | Sagebrush to pinyon-juniper and yellow pine, shale and sandstone, ridges, bases of cliffs, shale gravel, clay flats with Artemisia |
Elevation | 2900–4200 m (9500–13800 ft) | 1700–2900 m (5600–9500 ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CO; ID; MT; NM; OR; UT; WY; AB; BC
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CO; UT; WY
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Discussion | S. A. Spongberg (1971) recognized only the triploid populations as Erigeron grandiflorus and assigned the diploid ones to E. simplex. He hypothesized that the triploids incorporate genomic elements from an ancestor other than E. simplex. Based on his comments and annotations, however, triploids in southern Canada and the western United States apparently differ from the much more widespread diploids only quantitatively, having involucres and florets at the higher end of size ranges. Morphologic distinctions between the ploidal races do not provide a basis for consistent distinction. Spongberg (p. 200) also noted that “because of the intergrading of morphologic features of plants of Erigeron grandiflorus...the single most important criterion indicative of this taxon is highly irregular [in shape] and greatly abortive pollen.” These pollen features result from meiotic anomalies associated with the triploid condition. Specimen citations by A. Cronquist (1947) for Erigeron grandiflorus were mostly from collections of the species treated here as E. porsildii. He also cited two collections from southwestern Alberta; those and the type collection of E. grandiflorus (from the same region) are disjunct by more than 1500 kilometers from the more northern range of E. porsildii and instead lie at the northern extremity of the range of what previously has generally been identified as E. simplex. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 20, p. 324. | FNA vol. 20, p. 293. |
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Erigeron | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Erigeron |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | E. simplex | |
Name authority | Hooker: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 18, plate 123. (1834) | Rydberg: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 32: 124. (1905) |
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