Liatris provincialis
Liatris pauciflora
Godfrey's blazing star, Godfrey's gayfeather
few-flower gayfeather, fewflower blazing star
hirtellous.
minutely puberulent-hirtellous (hairs spreading to slightly deflexed) or glabrous.
basal and proximal cauline 1-nerved, linear-oblanceolate to narrowly oblanceolate, 60–150 × 2–6 mm, abruptly reduced, linear, 1–2 mm wide, then gradually or little reduced distally, essentially glabrous or hirtellous (sometimes mostly along abaxial midveins), gland-dotted.
basal and proximal cauline 1-nerved, narrowly oblanceolate to linear-oblanceolate, 40–120 × 2–7 mm, gradually or abruptly reduced distally (continuing as linear, mostly 10–40 mm bracts), hispidulous-hirtellous or glabrous, weakly, if at all, gland-dotted (glandular hairs not evident, proximal margins sometimes ciliate).
0.
0 or (ascending) 1–8 mm.
cylindric, 9–11 × 3–5 mm.
cylindric, 11–15 × 4–7 mm.
3–4;
corolla tubes glabrous inside.
3–6;
corolla tubes pilose inside.
in 3–4(–5) series, oblong-obovate to oblong or oblong-lanceolate, strongly unequal, glabrous, sparsely puberulent, or hirtellous, margins with hyaline borders, ciliolate, apices acute to acuminate (mid often cuspidate).
in 3–4 series, mostly oblong to oblong-oblanceolate, unequal, essentially glabrous, margins with hyaline borders, apices acute (sometimes with mucros or apicula).
in dense, spiciform arrays (spreading to ascending, not strongly overlapping).
in dense, racemiform to spiciform (strongly secund) arrays.
4–5.5 mm;
pappi: lengths ± equaling corollas, bristles barbellate.
3–4.5 mm;
pappi: lengths ± equaling corollas, bristles barbellate.
globose to elongate.
globose, sometimes depressed or elongate.
Liatris provincialis
Liatris pauciflora
Of conservation concern.
Liatris provincialis is very similar to L. chapmanii and apparently restricted to coastal and near-coastal sites in panhandle of Florida (Franklin and Wakulla counties). Beside the difference in orientation of the heads, phyllaries of L. provincialis are broader (versus gradually and more narrowly lanceolate), often abruptly acute to short-acuminate or cuspidate, but there is little else to distinguish the two. Liatris provincialis is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).
Varieties pauciflora and secunda are mostly allopatric, apparently overlapping in south-central Georgia and perhaps northeastern Florida. Some plants of var. secunda in Brunswick County, North Carolina, have nearly glabrous stems; their phyllaries have the narrower shape of more typical plants of the area and glandular punctations are strongly developed. Some plants of var. pauciflora in Seminole and Orange counties, Florida, have slightly hirtellous stems and lack glandular punctations. In other localities, differences in vestiture and punctation are not perfectly correlated. Other differences are seen as tendencies: leaves of var. secunda are thicker than in var. pauciflora and often have strongly but narrowly thickened-revolute margins; inner phyllaries of var. secunda are slightly narrower than in var. pauciflora, and the mid and inner usually are apiculate or mucronulate.
A. Cronquist (1980) treated Liatris pauciflora and L. secunda as a single species, suggesting that they might prove to be Mendelian variants; their mostly allopatric ranges indicate otherwise. Population studies might provide insight into the evolutionary interactions.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Stems usually glabrous, rarely sparsely hirtellous; leaves (and phyllaries) not or weakly gland-dotted; involucres 11–15 × 4–7 mm; phyllaries: inner (9–)10–13 × 2.5–3.8 mm, apices acute (without mucros or apicula); cypselae 3–4.5 mm | var. pauciflora |
1. Stems minutely puberulent-hirtellous (hairs spreading to slightly deflexed); leaves (and phyllaries) gland-dotted (each pit with a glandular hair); involucres 7–10(–14) × 3–5 mm; phyllaries: inner 10–13 × 2–3 mm, apices abruptly short-acuminate, mid and inner often apiculate to mucronulate; cypselae 4–5 mm | var. secunda |
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