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Mt. Tamalpais lessingia, Tamalpais lessingia

lessingia

Habit Annuals, mostly 2–90 cm; taprooted.
Stems

erect or decumbent, simple or branched from bases or distally, glabrous or villous to woolly.

Leaves

sparsely stipitate-glandular or not.

basal and/or cauline (basal rosettes sometimes withering by flowering); alternate;

petiolate or sessile;

blades 1-nerved, ovate or obovate to lanceolate, linear, or subulate (bases sometimes clasping), margins entire or dentate to pinnately lobed, abaxial faces glabrous or sparsely tomentose to woolly, sometimes stipitate-glandular.

Involucres

hemispheric, obconic, campanulate, or narrowly cylindric, 4–13 mm diam.

Receptacles

slightly convex, pitted, epaleate.

Ray florets

0.

Disc florets

5–10.

3–40, bisexual, fertile;

corollas white, pink, lavender, or yellow, tubes shorter or longer than funnelform to tubular throats (each with or without colored band inside, limbs frequently palmately expanded in peripheral florets), lobes 5, erect or spreading, lanceolate;

style-branch (linear) appendages lanceolate (0.3–1.3 mm) or truncate-penicillate (0.1–0.4 mm).

Phyllaries

stipitate-glandular.

10–55 in 4–8 series, erect or recurved (green to purple), 1-nerved (flat), oblong, ovate, or lanceolate, unequal, herbaceous, scarious, or rarely cartilaginous (apices obtuse to acute), faces glabrous or villous to woolly, sometimes stipitate-glandular.

Heads

discoid (or ± radiant, corollas of outer florets sometimes enlarged), borne singly or in ± corymbiform arrays (terminal or sessile to subsessile in axils of leaves).

Cypselae

(white to tan or mottled purple-brown) cuneiform to linear, not compressed, smooth or obscurely 5–10-nerved, faces puberulent to pilose;

pappi persistent, of 3–55, distinct or basally connate, tan to reddish, barbellate, apically attenuate bristles in 1–2 series, sometimes forming coronas.

x

= 5, 6.

2n

= 10.

Lessingia micradenia var. micradenia

Lessingia

Phenology Flowering Jul–Oct.
Habitat Openings, chaparral, thin, gravelly soils of serpentine outcrops, roadsides
Elevation 100–500 m (300–1600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA
[BONAP county map]
from USDA
w North America; nw Mexico
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Of conservation concern.

Variety micradenia is known only from the Mount Tamalpais region in Marin County.

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

Species 12 (12 in the flora).

In gland-bearing lessingias, the glands may be stipitate and/or sessile (gland-dotted, sometimes in pits) and may be found on stems, leaves, and/or phyllaries. They are seldom restricted to the faces of leaves or phyllaries and are usually most prominent on leaf and/or phyllary margins.

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

Key
1. Corollas yellow (sometimes pink or suffused with purple in peripheral florets of L. tenuis)
→ 2
1. Corollas white, pink, or lavender
→ 5
2. Style-branch appendages lanceolate, 0.3–1.3 mm, corolla tubes without brown-purple band inside
L. glandulifera
2. Style-branch appendages truncate-penicillate, 0.1–0.4 mm, corolla tubes with brown-purple band inside
→ 3
3. Plants eglandular or phyllaries sparsely gland-dotted (San Francisco peninsula, California)
L. germanorum
3. Plants ± glandular
→ 4
4. Cauline leaves sometimes gland-dotted; phyllary apices purple; corollas yellow (occasionally pink or suffused with purple in peripheral florets)
L. tenuis
4. Cauline leaves gland-dotted; phyllary apices usually green, rarely purple; corol-las yellow
L. pectinata
5. Phyllaries usually glabrous, rarely villous, sometimes stipitate-glandular or gland-dotted
→ 6
5. Phyllaries villous to tomentose or woolly, sometimes gland-dotted as well
→ 8
6. Basal leaves usually persistent at flowering; cauline leaves stipitate-glandular; involucres hemispheric to campanulate; corollas lavender (never white)
L. ramulosa
6. Basal leaves usually withering by flowering; cauline leaves sometimes stipitate-glandular; involucres cylindric to broadly obconic; corollas white (occasionally pale lavender)
→ 7
7. Cauline leaves gland-dotted (in pits) and sometimes stipitate-glandular; style-branch appendages usually lanceolate, sometimes truncate-penicillate
L. nemaclada
7. Cauline leaves usually eglandular, sometimes sparsely stipitate-glandular; style-branch appendages truncate-penicillate
L. micradenia
8. Stems decumbent; apices of phyllaries green; inner phyllaries cartilaginous; pappi pink to red
L. nana
8. Stems erect; apices of phyllaries green or purple; inner phyllaries scarious; pappi white to tan
→ 9
9. Cauline leaves eglandular
→ 10
9. Cauline leaves gland-dotted (in pits, rarely stipitate-glandular in L. virgata, glands sometimes obscured by tomentum)
→ 11
10. Basal leaves withering by flowering; involucres 4–8 mm; style-branch appendages truncate-penicillate; pappi usually shorter than cypselae (except in Sonoma County, California)
L. arachnoidea
10. Basal leaves persistent at flowering; involucres (5–)8–13 mm; style-branch appendages lanceolate; pappi equaling or longer than cypselae
L. hololeuca
11. Cauline leaf faces glabrous or villous to tomentose; heads usually at ends of branchlets; florets 6–25; corollas lavender (never white)
L. leptoclada
11. Cauline leaf faces villous to woolly; heads usually in axils of leaves; florets 3–6; corollas usually white, sometimes pale lavender
L. virgata
Source FNA vol. 20, p. 456. FNA vol. 20, p. 452. Author: Staci Markos.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Lessingia > Lessingia micradenia Asteraceae > tribe Astereae
Sibling taxa
L. micradenia var. glabrata
Subordinate taxa
L. arachnoidea, L. germanorum, L. glandulifera, L. hololeuca, L. leptoclada, L. micradenia, L. nana, L. nemaclada, L. pectinata, L. ramulosa, L. tenuis, L. virgata
Name authority unknown Chamisso: Linnaea 4: 203, plate 2, fig. 2. (1829)
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