Packera indecora
Packera cymbalaria
elegant groundsel, rayless mountain butterweed, rayless mountain groundsel, rayless mountain ragwort
dwarf arctic groundsel, dwarf arctic ragwort, northern butterweed
1 or 2–3, loosely clustered, glabrous or glabrate.
usually 1 (sometimes more, clustered), usually glabrous, sometimes bases and leaf axils tomentose.
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.
petiolate;
blades ovate to obovate, lyrate, or reniform, 10–30+ × 10–25+ mm, bases cuneate (sometimes tapering to winged petioles) to subcordate or contracted, margins crenate, dentate, or weakly lobed.
gradually reduced (petiolate, resembling basals, sublyrate or dissected; distal sessile, subentire to pinnatifid).
abruptly reduced (sessile, not clasping; lanceolate, entire or pinnately lobed to pinnatisect).
ebracteate (or bractlets inconspicuous), glabrous or glabrate.
0 or relatively reduced (then densely tomentose).
0 or 8–10;
corolla laminae (deep yellow) 3–5 mm.
0 or 11–13;
corolla laminae (yellow, purple streaks in veins) 10–14+ mm.
60–70+;
corolla tubes 2–3 mm, limbs 2.5–3.5 mm.
60–75+;
corolla tubes 2–2.5 mm, limbs 4–5 mm.
13 or 21, green (tips sometimes reddish), 7–9 mm, glabrous.
21, deep red or green (tips red), 6–8 mm, glabrous.
conspicuous (bractlets green, tips sometimes reddish).
conspicuous (bractlets cyanic).
8–20+ in subumbelliform arrays.
1–2.
1–2 mm, glabrous;
pappi 3–4 mm.
1.5–2 mm, glabrous;
pappi 5–6 mm.
= 46, 126, 176, 184.
= 46, 92, 138.
Packera indecora
Packera cymbalaria
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.)
Packera cymbalaria occurs in three, disjunct regions: western Alaska eastward into western N.W.T. and south into northwestern British Columbia; Newfoundland and the Gaspé Peninsula, Quebec; and Siberia. Considerable morphologic overlap exists between western and eastern populations in North America; western populations have slightly different flavonoid chemistries and chromosome numbers. Western populations are either diploid or tetraploid; eastern populations are hexaploid. The correct name for this species may prove to be Packera heterophylla (Fischer) E. Wiebe, based on Cineraria heterophylla Fischer.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
BC
CA
WA
Flora NW
MI Flora
MN Wildflowers
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
