Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Microseris elegans

elegant silverpuffs
Habit Annuals, 5–35 cm; taprooted.
Stems

0.
Leaves

basal; petiolate;

blades linear to narrowly oblanceolate, 2–20 cm, margins entire, dentate, or pinnately lobed, apices acuminate, faces glabrous or lightly scurfy-puberulent.
Peduncles

erect or curved-ascending, ebracteate.
Involucres

globose to ovoid in fruit, 4–8(–10) mm.
Florets

5–100;

corollas yellow or orange, equaling or surpassing phyllaries by 1–2 mm.
Phyllaries

apices acute to acuminate, faces glabrous;

outer deltate;

inner lanceolate (midveins often purple, thickened).
Cypselae

columnar to obconic, 1.5–3 mm;

pappi of (4–)5 white or brownish, ovate to deltate, aristate scales 0.2–2.5 mm (straight or slightly arcuate, scarcely involute, glabrous, midveins linear, widths less than 1/5 bodies, thicker at base), aristae (brown, fine) barbellulate.
2n

= 18.

Microseris elegans
Phenology Flowering Apr–Jun.
Habitat Mostly clay soils, flats and hillsides, often near vernal pools, grasslands, shrublands
Elevation 10–700 m (0–2300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; Mexico (Baja California)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Microseris elegans is widespread in interior central California, becoming coastal in the southwestern part of its range. It was hypothesized to be one of the diploid ancestors of M. campestris (K. L. Chambers 1955); molecular evidence supporting that relationship was presented by D. Roelofs et al. (1997).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 346.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Cichorieae > Microseris
Sibling taxa
M. acuminata, M. bigelovii, M. borealis, M. campestris, M. douglasii, M. howellii, M. laciniata, M. nutans, M. paludosa, M. sylvatica
Synonyms M. aphantocarpha var. elegans
Name authority Greene ex A. Gray: in A. Gray et al., Syn. Fl. N. Amer. 1(2): 419. (1884)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers