Flora of North America species comparison

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Pluchea sagittalis

Pluchea carolinensis

wing-stem camphorweed

cough bush, cure-for-all, sourbrush, sourbush, wild tobacco
Habit Perennials, 50–200 cm; fibrous-rooted. Subshrubs, 100–400 cm; tap-rooted.
Stems

minutely hirtellous to strigillose and sessile-glandular (winged by decurrent leaf bases).

matted-villous with viscid, vitreous hairs, proximally glabrescent, not evidently glandular.
Leaves

sessile;

blades usually lanceolate to lance-elliptic (proximal sometimes spatulate or oblanceolate), mostly 5–15 × 1–3(–4) cm, margins shallowly and closely toothed, faces minutely hirtellous to strigillose and sessile-glandular.

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.
Involucres

hemispheric to cupulate, 4–7 × 8–10 mm.

broadly campanulate to cupulate, 4.5–6 × 5–10 mm.
Corollas

white or rose-purple.

whitish to pink-lavender.
Phyllaries

greenish to cream, ± stipitate-glandular (outer oval-oblong to linear-attenuate).

greenish to creamy or tan, sometimes slightly purple, glandular-tomentose.
Heads

in corymbiform arrays.

in dense, corymbiform arrays (held beyond the leaves, axes minutely bracteate, bracts abruptly differentiated from cauline leaves).
Pappi

persistent, bristles distinct.

tardily falling, bristles distinct.
2n

= 20.

= 20.

Pluchea sagittalis

Pluchea carolinensis
Phenology Flowering Jul–Aug. Late Feb–Jun.
Habitat Moist or wet, open habitats, ballast deposit areas Roadsides, borders of hammocks
Elevation 0–10 m (0–0 ft) 0 m (0 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; FL; South America; West Indies [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
from USDA
Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies; Bermuda [Introduced, Fla.; introduced in Pacific Islands]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Pluchea sagittalis is adventive, probably a waif; it was collected as a ballast weed by C. Mohr near Mobile (1891, 1894, 1896) and by A. H. Curtiss near Pensacola (1886, 1901).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

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.)
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 480. FNA vol. 19, p. 480.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Plucheeae > Pluchea Asteraceae > tribe Plucheeae > Pluchea
Sibling taxa
P. baccharis, P. camphorata, P. carolinensis, P. foetida, P. longifolia, P. odorata, P. sericea, P. yucatanensis
P. baccharis, P. camphorata, P. foetida, P. longifolia, P. odorata, P. sagittalis, P. sericea, P. yucatanensis
Synonyms Conyza sagittalis, P. quitoc, P. suaveolens Conyza carolinensis
Name authority (Lamarck) Cabrera: Bol. Soc. Argent. Bot. 3: 36. (1949) (Jacquin) G. Don: in R. Sweet, Hort Brit. ed. 3, 350. (1839)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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