Gamochaeta purpurea
Gamochaeta sphacelata
purple everlasting-cudweed, spoon-leaf cudweed, spoon-leaf purple everlasting
owl's crown
erect to decumbent-ascending, densely but loosely pannose or pannose-tomentose.
erect to ascending, densely gray-white pannose.
basal and cauline, basal and proximal cauline usually withering before flowering;
blades oblanceolate to spatulate, 1–6 cm × 5–14 mm (distal similar, at least among proximal heads, margins sometimes sinuate), faces usually bicolor, abaxial closely white-pannose, adaxial usually sparsely arachnose (basal cells of hairs persistent, expanded, glassy), sometimes glabrescent.
basal and cauline, basal usually withering before flowering;
blades linear to narrowly oblanceolate (often folded along midveins), 1–4 cm × 1–3(–5) mm (distally becoming ± patent, arcuate bracts surpassing the heads), faces concolor or weakly bicolor, pannose-tomentose (± equally grayish to whitish, basal cells of hairs on adaxial faces persistent, expanded, glassy).
turbinate-cylindric, 4–4.5 mm, bases sparsely arachnose.
cylindro-campanulate, 3.5–4(–5) mm, sparsely arachnose.
bisexual 3–4; all corollas usually purplish distally.
bisexual 3–5; all corollas usually purplish distally.
in 4–5 series, outer ovate-triangular, lengths 1/3–2/3 inner, apices acute-acuminate, inner triangular-lanceolate (usually striate), laminae purplish (in bud) to whitish or silvery (in fruit), apices acute (not apiculate).
in (3–)4–5 series, outer triangular, lengths 1/3–1/2 inner, apices (brown) acute-acuminate (usually inrolled and spreading or recurved), inner triangular-lanceolate, laminae purplish (in bud) to whitish or silvery (in fruit), apices (usually striate) acute (not apiculate).
initially in continuous spiciform arrays 1–4(–5) cm × (5–)10–15 mm, later interrupted (glomerules widely separated, bracteate, the proximal often on relatively long peduncles).
in terminal glomerules 1 cm or in interrupted, spiciform arrays 2–14 cm × 10–12(–14) mm (pressed; glomerules sometimes axillary).
(tan) 0.6–0.7 mm.
(tan) 0.5–0.6 mm.
= 14, 28.
Gamochaeta purpurea
Gamochaeta sphacelata
Gamochaeta purpurea apparently is native to North America and adventive elsewhere.
Basal cells of hairs on adaxial faces of leaves are expanded and glassy (versus hairs filiform to bases in most other species) and are diagnostic for Gamochaeta purpurea. From Maryland northward, plants of G. purpurea produce relatively small basal rosettes and relatively shallow fibrous roots or a filiform taproot; southward and southwestward, the basal rosettes often are larger and the fibrous roots are denser.
Gamochaeta purpurea apparently occurs widely through the world as a weed; it is fairly clearly native to eastern North America, where it is the least weedy of the gamochaetas. Plants of G. purpurea in southern Arizona along perennial streams at the base of the Santa Catalina Mountains were first collected in 1903 (G. L. Nesom 2004) and were, perhaps, accidentally established through visitation; the same sites are heavily infested by other, more aggressive, nonnative species. Collections of G. purpurea also have been made at higher elevations in the Santa Catalina, Rincon, and Chiricahua mountains, where the species is less likely to have been introduced by human activity. It also seems unlikely that plants in scattered Mexican localities were introduced there by human activity.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Gamochaeta sphacelata is recognized by its linear to narrowly oblanceolate, concolor leaves, interrupted, spiciform arrays of heads in compact axillary glomerules or on lateral branches, glomerules subtended by ± patent, arcuate bracts, dark brown involucres, and acute-acuminate, recurving tips of outer and mid phyllaries. Roots are typically lignescent taproots. As in G. purpurea, the basal cells of each hair on adaxial leaf faces are persistent, expanded, and glassy.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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