Microseris elegans |
Microseris |
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elegant silverpuffs |
microseris, silver puffs |
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Habit | Annuals, 5–35 cm; taprooted. | Annuals or perennials, 5–120 cm; taprooted or with caudices (in perennial species; M. borealis rhizomatous). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | 0. |
1–30+, erect, simple or relatively few- to many-branched (naked or leafy proximally and often distally), glabrous or scurfy-pubescent (especially proximal to heads). |
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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. |
mostly basal, cauline 0 or reduced; petiolate (petioles broad to narrow); blades linear to lanceolate or oblanceolate, margins entire, lacerate, dentate, or pinnately lobed (often with narrow rachises and linear lobes; apices acuminate or acute to obtuse, faces glabrous or lightly scurfy-puberulent). |
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Peduncles | erect or curved-ascending, ebracteate. |
(erect or curved-ascending) not distally inflated, ebracteate (annuals) or leafy (perennials except M. borealis). |
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Involucres | globose to ovoid in fruit, 4–8(–10) mm. |
fusiform, ovoid, globose, or campanulate, 3–30 mm diam. |
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Receptacles | flat to low-convex, pitted, glabrous, epaleate. |
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Florets | 5–100; corollas yellow or orange, equaling or surpassing phyllaries by 1–2 mm. |
5–300; corollas yellow to orange or white, outer often purplish abaxially. |
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Phyllaries | apices acute to acuminate, faces glabrous; outer deltate; inner lanceolate (midveins often purple, thickened). |
5–40 in 3–5 series, unequal (outer usually shorter, ± deltate, inner ± lanceolate), herbaceous (midveins often thickened; abaxial faces glabrous or scurfy-puberulent, sometimes black-villous, often adaxially black-villous and minutely white-strigillose). |
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Calyculi | 0 (outer phyllaries forming calyculiform series in annuals). |
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Heads | borne singly (nodding or inclined in bud, erect in flower and fruit). |
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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. |
gray to brown or purplish, sometimes purplish-spotted, columnar, obconic, or fusiform (basal callosities knoblike), apices truncate, ribs 10–15, smooth or scabrous (white-villous on marginal cypselae in some species); pappi persistent, usually of 5–30, silvery to yellowish, brownish, or blackish aristate scales (often reduced to 0–4 in M. douglasii, of 24–48 bristles in M. borealis), scale bodies deltate, lanceolate, oblong, ovate, orbiculate, or linear, apices obtuse to acute or lacerate, faces glabrous or villous, aristae barbellulate to barbellate or plumose. |
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x | = 9. |
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2n | = 18. |
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Microseris elegans |
Microseris |
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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 |
CA; Mexico (Baja California)
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w North America; South America; Pacific Islands (New Zealand); Australia |
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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.) |
Species 14 (11 in the flora). A broad circumscription of Microseris, including Apargidium and excluding Nothocalaïs, has usually been accepted (e.g., K. L. Chambers 1955, 1960). Recently, molecular data have led to reinstatement of the monotypic genus Uropappus and separation of two other species as the allotetraploid genus Stebbinsoseris (R. K. Jansen et al. 1991b; Chambers 1993c). A large body of literature has resulted from use of Microseris as a model genetic system by K. Bachmann and colleagues (e.g., Bachmann et al. 1979; Bachmann 1992; Bachmann and J. Battjes 1994). Differences in the diploid DNA amount within and between species have been studied by H. J. Price and colleagues (Price and Bachmann 1975; Price et al. 1981, 1983). Additional genetic studies, not referenced here, have involved three species from Australia, New Zealand, and Chile, widely disjunct from the main center of distribution in western North America. Ten of the species are diploid (2n = 18); the four tetraploid species (2n = 36) are of alloploid origin. The nine North American perennial taxa are closely related and mostly allopatric, occupying different habitats or climatic zones. The five annual species, which sometimes occur in sympatric clusters, are difficult to distinguish without the presence of cypselae. In keys and descriptions, measurements of pappus scales exclude aristae. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 19, p. 346. | FNA vol. 19, p. 338. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Cichorieae > Microseris | Asteraceae > tribe Cichorieae | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | M. aphantocarpha var. elegans | Apargidium, Calaïs, Scorzonella | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Greene ex A. Gray: in A. Gray et al., Syn. Fl. N. Amer. 1(2): 419. (1884) | D. Don: Philos. Mag. Ann. Chem. 11: 388. (1832) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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