Liatris tenuifolia |
Liatris pauciflora |
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pine-needle gayfeather, shortleaf blazing star, shortleaf gayfeather |
few-flower gayfeather, fewflower blazing star |
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Habit | Plants 40–150 cm. | Plants 20–90 cm. | ||||
Stems | glabrous or sparsely pilose. |
minutely puberulent-hirtellous (hairs spreading to slightly deflexed) or glabrous. |
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Leaves | basal and proximal cauline (arising from separated nodes) 1-nerved, linear to linear-lanceolate, 100–300 × 1–2(–2.5) mm, gradually or abruptly reduced distally, essentially glabrous, gland-dotted (proximal margins sometimes ciliate). |
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). |
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Peduncles | (ascending) 1–7 mm. |
0 or (ascending) 1–8 mm. |
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Involucres | turbinate-campanulate, 5–7 × 4–5 mm. |
cylindric, 11–15 × 4–7 mm. |
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Florets | 4–6; corolla tubes glabrous inside. |
3–6; corolla tubes pilose inside. |
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Phyllaries | in 2–3(–4) series, lanceolate to oblong or elliptic-oblong, unequal, essentially glabrous, margins with (pinkish purple) hyaline borders, apices usually rounded-retuse and minutely involute-cuspidate to apiculate. |
in 3–4 series, mostly oblong to oblong-oblanceolate, unequal, essentially glabrous, margins with hyaline borders, apices acute (sometimes with mucros or apicula). |
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Heads | in compact, racemiform arrays. |
in dense, racemiform to spiciform (strongly secund) arrays. |
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Cypselae | 2.5–4 mm; pappi: lengths ± equaling corollas, bristles barbellate. |
3–4.5 mm; pappi: lengths ± equaling corollas, bristles barbellate. |
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Corms | globose. |
globose, sometimes depressed or elongate. |
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Liatris tenuifolia |
Liatris pauciflora |
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Phenology | Flowering Aug–Nov. | |||||
Habitat | Longleaf pine savannas, longleaf pine-scrub oak, turkey oak-bluejack oak, slash pine-sand pine-scrub, sand pine-scrub, sand ridges, hills, and flats, roadsides | |||||
Elevation | 10–100 m (0–300 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
AL; FL; GA; SC
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AL; FL; GA; NC; SC
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Discussion | 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.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 21, p. 526. | FNA vol. 21, p. 527. | ||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Eupatorieae > Liatris | Asteraceae > tribe Eupatorieae > Liatris | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Lacinaria tenuifolia | |||||
Name authority | Nuttall: Gen. N. Amer. Pl. 2: 131. (1818) | Pursh: Fl. Amer. Sept. 2: 510. (1813) | ||||
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