Flora of North America species comparison

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Galinsoga

gallant soldier, garden pest, quickweed
Habit Annuals, 2–62 cm.
Stems

erect.
Leaves

cauline; opposite;

petiolate;

blades (3-nerved) lanceolate to broadly ovate, margins entire or serrulate to serrate, faces glabrate to densely pilose.
Involucres

hemispheric to campanulate, 2.5–6 mm diam.
Receptacles

conic, paleate (paleae persistent or falling, scarious, proximal broadly elliptic to obovate, often connate at bases or nearly to apices, united in groups of 2–3 to adjacent proximal phyllary, each complex often enclosing and shed with a ray cypsela; distal persistent or falling, lanceolate to obovate, entire or 2- or 3-lobed, convex to conduplicate).
Ray florets

[0–](3–)5(–8)[–15], pistillate, fertile;

corollas white or dull white to pinkish [purplish] (tubes pilose, laminae quadrate-obovate to oblong, lobes 0–3).
Disc florets

5–50[–150], bisexual, fertile;

corollas yellow, tubes (pilose) shorter than cylindric throats, lobes 5, deltate (anthers yellow; style-branch apices acute).
Phyllaries

persistent or falling, 6–9[–16] in 2[–3] series (elliptic, lance-ovate, oblong, or ovate, outer shorter, herbaceous or scarious, margins entire or minutely laciniate).
Heads

radiate or discoid, in ± cymiform arrays.
Cypselae

obconic to obpyramidal, glabrous or strigose (rays often shed with subtending phyllary plus 2–3 adjacent paleae);

pappi 0, or persistent, of 5–20, white or gray, fimbriate, sometimes aristate scales.
x

= 8.

Galinsoga
Distribution
from USDA
North America; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies; Bermuda [Introduced in Europe, Asia, Africa, Atlantic Islands, Pacific Islands, Australia]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 15–33+ (2 in the flora).

Galinsoga is closely related to Sabazia Cassini of Mexico and South America and to at least some members of Alloispermum Willdenow, primarily from South America. Galinsoga might best be treated as a single larger genus including Alloispermum and Sabazia (J. M. Canne 1978; J. L. Panero et al. 1999).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Phyllaries persistent; inner paleae 3-lobed, lobes 1/3+ total lengths, acute; disc pappi 0, or of 15–20 often gray, sometimes white, linear, fimbriate, obtuse scales 0.5–2 mm
G. parviflora
1. Phyllaries falling; inner paleae entire or 2- or 3-lobed, lobes to 1/3 total lengths, blunt; disc pappi 0, or of 1–5 or 14–20 white, lanceolate to oblanceolate, fimbriate, sometimes aristate, scales
G. quadriradiata
Source FNA vol. 21, p. 180. Treatment author: Judith M. Canne-Hilliker.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Heliantheae > subtribe Galinsoginae
Subordinate taxa
G. parviflora, G. quadriradiata
Name authority Ruiz & Pavón: Fl. Peruv. Prodr., 110, plate 24. (1794)
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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