Packera indecora
Packera franciscana
elegant groundsel, rayless mountain butterweed, rayless mountain groundsel, rayless mountain ragwort
San Francisco Peaks ragwort
1 or 2–3, loosely clustered, glabrous or glabrate.
1 (often purplish), sparsely lanate or arachno-tomentose, 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.
petiolate;
blades lyrate to sublyrate (midribs winged) or ovate to orbiculate, 10–20+ × 30–50+ mm, bases tapering to contracted, ultimate margins ± dentate (faces glabrate at flowering).
gradually reduced (petiolate, resembling basals, sublyrate or dissected; distal sessile, subentire to pinnatifid).
gradually reduced (sessile; usually bractlike and entire, sometimes larger and pinnatifid).
ebracteate (or bractlets inconspicuous), glabrous or glabrate.
conspicuously bracteate (bractlets red-tipped), densely lanate-tomentose.
0 or 8–10;
corolla laminae (deep yellow) 3–5 mm.
8 or 13;
corolla laminae 5–10 mm.
60–70+;
corolla tubes 2–3 mm, limbs 2.5–3.5 mm.
30–40+;
corolla tubes 2–3 mm, limbs 2.5–3.5 mm.
13 or 21, green (tips sometimes reddish), 7–9 mm, glabrous.
13 or 21, purplish, 6–9 mm, sparsely tomentose.
conspicuous (bractlets green, tips sometimes reddish).
conspicuous (bractlets reddish or purple).
8–20+ in subumbelliform arrays.
borne singly or 2–6 in compact, cymiform arrays.
1–2 mm, glabrous;
pappi 3–4 mm.
1.5–2 mm, glabrous;
pappi 5–6 mm.
= 46, 126, 176, 184.
= 46.
Packera indecora
Packera franciscana
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.)
Of conservation concern.
Packera franciscana is known only from above timberline in the San Francisco Peaks and is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants. It spreads by extensive rhizomes and is fairly abundant locally.
(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
