Flora of North America species comparison

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Euchiton

cottonleaf, cudweed, euchiton
Habit Annuals or perennials, 5–80 cm (usually fibrous-rooted, sometimes rhizomatous, usually stoloniferous).
Stems

usually 1, erect.
Leaves

basal and cauline (sometimes in rosettes); alternate;

petiolate or sessile;

blades oblanceolate, spatulate, lanceolate, or linear, bases cuneate or ampliate, margins entire (sometimes undulate and/or revolute), faces bicolor, abaxial usually silvery, tomentose, adaxial usually green, glabrate or glabrous.
Involucres

narrowly campanulate to cylindric, 3–5 mm.
Receptacles

flat, smooth, epaleate.
Peripheral (pistillate) florets

16–150 (more numerous than bisexual);

corollas purple or distally purplish.
Phyllaries

in 3–4+ series, mostly stramineous to brownish, sometimes purplish to pinkish (hyaline, stereomes not glandular), unequal, chartaceous toward tips.
Heads

disciform, usually in terminal clusters (subtended by leafy bracts, sometimes with axillary clusters), rarely borne singly.
Cypselae

obovoid-ellipsoid, slightly flattened, faces minutely hairy or papillate (papilliform hairs or papillae ± clavate, not myxogenic);

pappi readily falling (singly or in groups), of 12–20, distinct or basally coherent, barbellate bristles in 1 series.
Inner

(bisexual) florets 1–7;

corollas purple or distally purplish.
x

= 14.

Euchiton
Distribution
from USDA
Australia; New Zealand; New Guinea; e Asia; some species widely naturalized [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 17 (3 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Annuals; taprooted; leaf bases not clasping; bracts subtending heads 4–8; heads in globose clusters; bisexual florets 1
E. sphaericus
1. Perennials or biennials; fibrous-rooted; leaf bases subclasping; bracts subtending heads 2–5; heads in hemispheric clusters; bisexual florets 3–7
→ 2
2. Stolons usually present; basal leaves in rosettes at flowering; cauline leaves 2–4(–6), blades linear to oblanceolate, 1–2 cm × 1–2 mm; bracts subtending heads 2–3, not surpassing heads; pistillate florets 40–60
E. gymnocephalus
2. Stolons usually absent; basal leaves withering before flowering; cauline leaves 6–10, blades mostly linear, 3–8 cm × 2–3 mm; bracts subtending heads 3–5, surpassing heads; pistillate florets 80–150
E. involucratus
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 440. Author: Guy L. Nesom.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Gnaphalieae
Subordinate taxa
E. gymnocephalus, E. involucratus, E. sphaericus
Name authority Cassini: in F. Cuvier, Dict. Sci. Nat. ed. 2, 56: 214. (1828)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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