Pluchea foetida
Pluchea odorata
stinking camphorweed
marsh fleabane, salt marsh fleabane, shrubby camphor-weed, sweet-scented camphorweed, sweetscent
(often dark purplish) arachnose, glandular.
stipitate- to sessile-glandular (commonly with eglandular but viscid hairs as well), not arachnose.
sessile;
blades (thick, reticulate-veined) oblong to elliptic, lance-ovate, or ovate, mostly 3–10(–13) × 1–4 cm (bases clasping), margins denticulate (apices rounded to acute), faces minutely sessile-glandular.
petiolate or sessile;
blades (succulent, drying thin) lance-ovate to ovate or ovate-elliptic, mostly 4–15 × 1–7 cm, margins shallowly serrate, faces glabrate to moderately or densely pubescent (hairs crinkly).
usually cupulate to campanulate, sometimes turbinate-campanulate, 5–10 × 6–9(–12) mm (bases mostly rounded to impressed, sometimes obtuse).
cylindro-campanulate, 5–6 × 4–8(–10) mm.
creamy white to yellowish or pale pink.
pink to rosy or purple.
usually creamy white, sometimes cream, greenish, pinkish, rose-purplish, purplish, yellowish, or pale pink, thinly arachnoid-pubescent and sessile-glandular (the outer ovate to ovate-lanceolate, lengths mostly 0.2–0.6 times inner).
usually cream, sometimes purplish, minutely sessile-glandular (outer usually also puberulent), sometimes glabrate.
in loose to dense, corymbiform arrays.
in corymbiform arrays (flat-topped to rounded, often layered, sometimes incorporating relatively long, leafy, lateral branches, clusters of heads terminal on branches, some lateral branches nearly equaling or surpassing central portions).
persistent, bristles distinct.
persistent, bristles distinct.
= 20.
Pluchea foetida
Pluchea odorata
Pluchea foetida var. imbricata has not been treated as distinct from typical P. foetida by recent authors (e.g., A. Cronquist 1980; R. K. Godfrey and J. W. Wooten 1981; R. P. Wunderlin et al. 1996). Although plants similar to the type can be found scattered in Florida and Georgia, a populational integrity does not appear to occur, and intermediate forms exist. Nevertheless, field biologists should be aware of the putative distinctions of var. imbricata to make more critical observations regarding its status.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Distalmost leaves triangular-ovate; heads in tight, rounded clusters at ends of branches; involucres turbinate-campanulate, 9–10 mm; phyllaries pink- ish to rose-purplish | var. imbricata |
1. Distalmost leaves mostly oblong-elliptic; heads in paniculiform arrays of usually flat-topped cymiform clusters; involucres broadly campanulate, 5–8 mm; phyllaries cream to greenish | var. foetida |
1. Involucres 5–6 × 4–6(–7) mm; functionally staminate florets 6–13(–19); plants 20–80(–200) cm | var. odorata |
1. Involucres 5–6 × 7–8(–10) mm; functionally staminate florets (14–)21–34; plants 20–60 cm | var. succulenta |
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