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yellow ray goldfields

Habit Annuals, to 60 cm. Annuals, perennials, subshrubs, or shrubs, 1–200 cm.
Stems

erect, branched distally, glabrous or slightly hairy.

Leaves

linear or subulate, 40–150 × 2–3+ mm, margins entire, faces glabrous.

basal, basal and cauline, or mostly cauline; mostly opposite (Lasthenia) or mostly alternate; usually sessile, sometimes obscurely petiolate;

blades (often 1–2 times pinnately lobed) or lobes often linear, ultimate margins entire or toothed, faces often ± woolly to tomentose, sometimes glabrate or glabrous, often gland-dotted.

Involucres

hemispheric, 5–10 mm.

ovoid or obconic to campanulate or hemispheric.

Receptacles

± conic, papillate, glabrous or sparsely hairy.

flat, convex, hemispheric, or conic (smooth, knobby, or pitted, glabrous or hairy), usually epaleate (paleae usually 0, rare in Eriophyllum).

Ray florets

7–15; (corollas yellow) laminae oblong, 4–14 mm.

0 or 4–21, pistillate, fertile (3–8 peripheral florets pistillate, fertile, corollas tubular in Amblyopappus and Monolopia congdonii);

corollas yellow to orange, often darker proximally, sometimes purplish (usually ± bilabiate in Monolopia).

Disc florets

2–300, bisexual, fertile;

corollas yellow to orange, tubes shorter than or about equaling funnelform or campanulate throats, lobes 4–5, deltate, glabrous or papillate;

anther thecae usually pale;

stigmatic papillae in 2 lines.

Phyllaries

10–14, ± lanceolate (distinct tips ± deltate), glabrous but for apices.

persistent, mostly 3–18 in 1–2 series, (erect or reflexed in fruit) distinct or connate, mostly elliptic, lanceolate, ovate, or obovate, usually ± equal, mostly herbaceous, sometimes indurate (at least proximally), flat or weakly cupped at bases, sometimes scarious-margined, often woolly to tomentose, sometimes glabrate or glabrous.

Calyculi

0.

Heads

radiate, discoid, or disciform, borne singly or in corymbiform, glomerate, or paniculiform arrays.

Cypselae

gray, clavate or obovoid, 2–3.5 mm, margins not ciliate, faces glabrous, or hairy and papillate (papillae rusty or yellowish, wartlike);

pappi 0.

clavate or obovoid to terete, or obpyramidal, sometimes compressed or obcompressed, glabrous, hairy, or papillate (compressed, callous-margined, and ciliolate in Eatonella, Lasthenia chrysantha, and Monolopia congdonii; sometimes winged in Monolopia);

pappi 0 or of 1–12+ aristate, erose, laciniate, or truncate scales or awns in 1–2 series (often 2 sorts of scales in combination on 1 cypsela).

Anther

appendages deltate or broadly ovate.

Lasthenia glabrata

Asteraceae tribe Heliantheae subtribe Baeriinae

Distribution
from FNA
CA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
w North America; Mexico; w South America
Discussion

Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora).

Historically, aboriginal Californians used fruits and leaves of Lasthenia glabrata for food. The subspecies are allopatric and almost identical except for their cypselae.

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

Genera 9, species 44 (7 genera, 41 species in the flora).

Members of Baeriinae are found mostly in western North America; there are disjuncts in western South America. H. Robinson (1981) treated Baeriinae as a relatively isolated element among epaleate subtribes of Heliantheae. B. G. Baldwin (in Baldwin et al. 2002) included Baeriinae within Madieae.

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

Key
1. Cypselae glabrous, not papillate
subsp. glabrata
1. Cypselae ± hairy and papillate
subsp. coulteri
1. Leaves all or mostly opposite
Lasthenia
1. Leaves mostly alternate (proximal sometimes opposite)
→ 2
2. Leaves glabrous (often granular-glandular, not woolly)
Amblyopappus
2. Leaves ± woolly or tomentose (usually stems and/or phyllaries as well)
→ 3
3. Heads ± disciform (4–7 peripheral florets pistillate, corollas with laminae ca. 0.5 mm)
Monolopia
3. Heads usually radiate, sometimes discoid
→ 4
4. Phyllaries usually reflexed in fruit (ray laminae 2–2.5 mm; pappi of 2, ± lacini-ate to nearly entire, often uniaristate scales 1.5–3 mm)
Eatonella
4. Phyllaries usually ± erect in fruit
→ 5
5. Ray florets 7–11 (corollas obscurely bilabiate, laminae each opposed by adaxial lobe or tooth)
Monolopia
5. Ray florets 0 or 3–13 (corollas not bilabiate)
→ 6
6. Annuals; ray cypselae obcompressed (disc corollas with rings of hairs at bases of limbs)
Pseudobahia
6. Annuals, perennials, subshrubs, or shrubs; ray cypselae usually prismatic, 4–5-angled (disc corollas without rings of hairs)
→ 7
7. Annuals, perennials, subshrubs, or shrubs; phyllaries 4–13(–15) in 1+ series; pappi 0, or coroniform, or of 6–12+ (distinct) scales (in 1–2 similar or contrasting series)
Eriophyllum
7. Subshrubs; phyllaries 8–16+ in ± 2 series; pappi of 2–6+ (unequal or 2 opposite, longer, and ± equal, basally connate, oblong to subulate) scales (tips acute to erose)
Constancea
Source FNA vol. 21, p. 343. FNA vol. 21, p. 335.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Heliantheae > subtribe Baeriinae > Lasthenia > sect. Hologymne Asteraceae > tribe Heliantheae
Sibling taxa
L. burkei, L. californica, L. chrysantha, L. conjugens, L. coronaria, L. debilis, L. ferrisiae, L. fremontii, L. glaberrima, L. gracilis, L. leptalea, L. maritima, L. microglossa, L. minor, L. ornduffii, L. platycarpha
Subordinate taxa
L. glabrata subsp. coulteri, L. glabrata subsp. glabrata
Amblyopappus, Constancea, Eatonella, Eriophyllum, Lasthenia, Monolopia, Pseudobahia
Synonyms subtribe Eriophyllinae
Name authority Lindley: Edwards’s Bot. Reg. 21: plate 1780. (1835) Bentham & Hooker f.: Gen. Pl. 2: 200. (1873)
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