Pluchea carolinensis
Pluchea yucatanensis
cough bush, cure-for-all, sourbrush, sourbush, wild tobacco
Yucatan camphorweed
matted-villous with viscid, vitreous hairs, proximally glabrescent, not evidently glandular.
± stipitate- or sessile-glandular, otherwise glabrous.
petiolate (petioles 10–40 mm);
blades (thickish, strongly bicolor) elliptic to oblong-obovate or ovate, 5–16(–20) × 2–6(–8) cm, margins entire or denticulate (teeth callous-tipped), abaxial faces moderately or sparsely matted-villous to crinkly-puberulent, adaxial (green) glabrate.
sessile;
blades (leathery, slightly succulent, shiny) oblong-obovate to oblong-oblanceolate or broadly lanceolate, 3–5 × (0.6–)1.5–2 cm (bases subclasping and sub-auriculate), margins serrulate, faces ± stipitate- or sessile-glandular, otherwise glabrous or distalmost minutely puberulent.
broadly campanulate to cupulate, 4.5–6 × 5–10 mm.
turbinate to campanulate, 5–6 × 4–5 mm.
whitish to pink-lavender.
pink to lavender or cream or pinkish to rosy.
greenish to creamy or tan, sometimes slightly purple, glandular-tomentose.
pink to lavender or cream, proximally stipitate- or sessile-glandular, distally densely stipitate-glandular (outermost ovate-lanceolate, lengths usually 1 times inner, rarely only 0.5 times inner).
in dense, corymbiform arrays (held beyond the leaves, axes minutely bracteate, bracts abruptly differentiated from cauline leaves).
in corymbiform arrays.
tardily falling, bristles distinct.
persistent, bristles distinct.
= 20.
Pluchea carolinensis
Pluchea yucatanensis
Pluchea carolinensis is naturalized in the Hawaiian Islands and other Pacific Islands.
The names Pluchea odorata of authors, not (Linnaeus) Cassini, and P. symphytifolia of authors, not Conyza symphytifolia Miller in the sense of W. T. Gillis (1977), have been used for plants here called Pluchea carolinensis. The taxon was long identified as P. odorata (R. K. Godfrey 1952) and was known as P. [Conyza] symphytifolia (Miller) Gillis for a while. Conyza symphytifolia Miller is a synonym of Neurolaena lobata (Linnaeus) Cassini (R. Khan and C. E. Jarvis 1989).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Pluchea yucatanensis apparently is native along the Gulf and Caribbean coasts of Mexico and Central America, most commonly on the Yucatan Peninsula and in Belize. In the United States, it is known from collections made from 1896 to 1969 in coastal Alabama and Mississippi; it appears to be naturalized in the flora.
Pluchea yucatanensis is similar in habit and general appearance to P. foetida and P. baccharis and has been identified as both; the rosy tinted phyllaries and florets are more similar to those of P. baccharis. The glabrous, slightly thickened, shiny leaves and glabrous phyllaries are recognition traits for the species.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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