Lessingia tenuis
Lessingia
spring lessingia
lessingia
erect, green to tan, glabrous or villous.
erect or decumbent, simple or branched from bases or distally, glabrous or villous to woolly.
basal withering by flowering;
cauline margins entire or dentate to pinnately lobed, faces sometimes gland-dotted, abaxial villous to tomentose.
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.
obconic, 4–7 mm.
hemispheric, obconic, campanulate, or narrowly cylindric, 4–13 mm diam.
slightly convex, pitted, epaleate.
0.
10–25;
corollas yellow (occasionally pink or suffused with purple in peripheral florets; tubes with brown-purple band inside);
style-branch appendages truncate-penicillate, 0.1–0.2 mm.
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).
purple-tipped, faces glabrous or villous, gland-dotted;
inner scarious.
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.
borne singly, at ends of branchlets.
discoid (or ± radiant, corollas of outer florets sometimes enlarged), borne singly or in ± corymbiform arrays (terminal or sessile to subsessile in axils of leaves).
(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.
tan, equal to or longer than cypselae.
= 5, 6.
= 10.
Lessingia tenuis
Lessingia
Lessingia tenuis is known from the central and southern San Francisco Bay area through the South Coast Range to Ventura 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.)
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 |
CA
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
OR
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
