Packera cynthioides
Packera indecora
White Mountain ragwort
elegant groundsel, rayless mountain butterweed, rayless mountain groundsel, rayless mountain ragwort
1 or 2–3, clustered, densely lanate-tomentose or canescent, tufts of arachnoid tomentum in leaf axils, or glabrescent.
1 or 2–3, loosely clustered, glabrous or glabrate.
(thick, leathery) petiolate;
blades narrowly lanceolate or oblanceolate, 25–100+ × 5–20 mm, bases tapering, margins entire, subentire, dentate, or wavy (adaxial faces early glabrescent).
petiolate;
blades elliptic-ovate, oblong, or subreniform, 20–50 × 10–40+ mm, bases subcordate, truncate, or cuneate, margins usually crenate-dentate to coarsely dentate-lacerate, seldom subentire.
gradually reduced (sessile; lanceolate to oblanceolate, entire or wavy).
gradually reduced (petiolate, resembling basals, sublyrate or dissected; distal sessile, subentire to pinnatifid).
0 (or relatively reduced, then densely tomentose).
ebracteate (or bractlets inconspicuous), glabrous or glabrate.
(5–)8;
corolla laminae 8–10+ mm.
0 or 8–10;
corolla laminae (deep yellow) 3–5 mm.
35–45+;
corolla tubes 2.5–3.5 mm, limbs 3.5–4.5 mm.
60–70+;
corolla tubes 2–3 mm, limbs 2.5–3.5 mm.
(8–)13, green (tips red), 3–6 mm, densely tomentose proximally, glabrate distally.
13 or 21, green (tips sometimes reddish), 7–9 mm, glabrous.
inconspicuous (bractlets red-tipped).
conspicuous (bractlets green, tips sometimes reddish).
10–30+ in open or congested, cymiform arrays.
8–20+ in subumbelliform arrays.
1–1.5 mm, glabrous;
pappi 5–6 mm.
1–2 mm, glabrous;
pappi 3–4 mm.
= 46.
= 46, 126, 176, 184.
Packera cynthioides
Packera indecora
Packera cynthioides blooms later than other Packera species at the same latitudes. It is noted by collectors as usually growing on north- or west-facing slopes in limestone-derived soils. Its cauline leaves are well developed and held at a shallow angle to the stem, giving the plant a more “leafy” aspect than other members of the genus.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Packera indecora is found at relatively low elevations in eastern Canada and at middle to subalpine elevations in the western cordillera. It closely resembles P. pauciflora and it is often difficult to identify specimens in the herbarium. Biosystematic studies (J. F. Bain and J. Whitton 1994) have indicated that although they are morphologically similar, P. indecora and P. pauciflora have distinctly different physiologies and should be maintained as distinct taxa.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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USDA Plants Database
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CA
WA
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MI Flora
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