Microseris laciniata
cut leaf scorzonella, cut-leaf microseris, cut-leaf silverpuffs
branched and leafy distally, or simple and leafy only proximally (subsp. detlingii and plants of extreme environments).
basal and cauline; petiolate (distal often sessile, clasping);
blades linear to broadly lanceolate, 10–50 cm, margins entire, dentate, lacerate, or pinnatifid, apices obtuse to acuminate, faces glabrous or scurfy-puberulent.
erect or curved-ascending, ebracteate or leafy (10–70 cm).
globose to narrowly ovoid in fruit, 10–30 mm.
13–300;
corollas yellow, surpassing phyllaries by 5+ mm.
often purple-spotted (especially in subsp. laciniata), apices erect, abaxial faces glabrous or scurfy-puberulent (often black-villous in subsp. leptosepala);
outer lanceolate to broadly ovate, deltate, or linear, slightly to much shorter than inner, 0.5–9 mm wide, apices cuspidate to acute;
inner broadly to narrowly lanceolate, apices acuminate.
columnar, 3.5–8 mm (tapering to bases);
pappi of 5–10(–15 in subsp. detlingii, or –24 in subsp. siskiyouensis), white to dull yellowish, deltate to lanceolate, aristate scales 0.5–8 mm, aristae barbellulate to barbellate.
= 18.
Microseris laciniata
Subspecies 4 (4 in the flora).
Microseris laciniata comprises four, mostly allopatric subspecies, the diagnostic features of which are found mainly in the phyllaries and pappi. These races intergrade where they come in contact, with the greatest diversity occurring in the Klamath Mountains of northern California and southern Oregon (K. L. Chambers 2004b). S. Mauthe et al. (1981) reported on a detailed morphologic analysis of the heads and pappi of M. laciniata and proposed that the observed variation could be explained by the interaction of a limited number of major genes. The species is consistently self-sterile and outcrossing. It also may reproduce clonally by adventitious buds borne on lateral roots.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Stems simple; leaves lanceolate or oblanceolate, usually entire, rarely sparingly pinnately lobed; outer phyllaries elliptic-ovate, smallest (2.5–)4 mm wide, apices acute or cuspidate; pappus scales 4–8 mm | subsp. detlingii |
1. Stems usually branched; leaves linear to lanceolate or oblanceolate, entire or pinnately lobed; outer phyllaries linear to ovate, smallest 1–9 mm wide, apices acuminate to cuspidate; pappus scales 0.5–3(–4) mm | → 2 |
2. Pappus scales 9–24, aristae barbellate; Klamath Mountains, Oregon and California | subsp. siskiyouensis |
2. Pappus scales 5–10, aristae usually barbellulate, rarely barbellate; Klamath Mountains and elsewhere | → 3 |
3. Outer phyllaries often purple-spotted, ovate-lanceolate to broadly ovate, smallest 2.5–9 mm wide, apices acute to cuspidate, abaxial faces usually glabrous; widespread | subsp. laciniata |
3. Outer phyllaries rarely purple-spotted, linear to lanceolate or deltate, smallest 0.5–2.5 mm wide, apices acute to acuminate, abaxial faces often scurfy-puberulent, sometimes black-villous; principally Coast Range and Klamath Mountains, rarely e to Great Basin Region, California, Oregon, Washington | subsp. leptosepala |
CA
OR
WA
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
