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wing-stem camphorweed

camphor pluchea, camphor weed, plowman's-wort

Habit Perennials, 50–200 cm; fibrous-rooted. Annuals or perennials, 50–200+ cm; fibrous-rooted.
Stems

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

minutely puberulent and sessile-glandular, usually also closely arachnose (hairs appressed).

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 10–20 mm);

blades elliptic to oblong-elliptic, 6–15 × 3–7 cm, margins dentate-serrate or entire, faces glandular-puberulent or puberulent and sessile-glandular.

Involucres

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

campanulate, 4–6 × 3–4 mm.

Corollas

white or rose-purple.

rose purplish.

Phyllaries

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

usually cream, sometimes purplish, minutely sessile-glandular (the outer also sparsely puberulent), sometimes glabrate.

Heads

in corymbiform arrays.

in paniculiform arrays (of rounded-convex, corymbiform clusters terminating branches from distal nodes, arrays usually resulting from axillary, strongly ascending, bracteate branches, the central axis longest and first to flower and, rarely, the only component of an array).

Pappi

persistent, bristles distinct.

persistent, bristles distinct.

2n

= 20.

Pluchea sagittalis

Pluchea camphorata

Phenology Flowering Jul–Aug. Flowering Aug–Oct (year-round in south).
Habitat Moist or wet, open habitats, ballast deposit areas Flatwoods, bottomland channels, other wet or moist freshwater habitats
Elevation 0–10 m (0–0 ft) 0–30 m (0–100 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; FL; South America; West Indies [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; AR; DE; FL; GA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MD; MO; MS; NC; NJ; OH; OK; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA; WV
[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 camphorata is similar to P. odorata and rarely may hybridize with it. In P. camphorata, the phyllaries of the inner 2–3 series are thin and nearly translucent, lanceolate, and more than twice as long as deltate-ovate phyllaries of the outer series. The inner may be glandular but they are otherwise glabrous, prominently different in vestiture from the outer. The phyllaries of P. odorata are more strongly graduated and the inner are glandular and also clearly puberulent as well.

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

Source FNA vol. 19, p. 480. FNA vol. 19, p. 481.
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. carolinensis, P. foetida, P. longifolia, P. odorata, P. sagittalis, P. sericea, P. yucatanensis
Synonyms Conyza sagittalis, P. quitoc, P. suaveolens Erigeron camphoratus
Name authority (Lamarck) Cabrera: Bol. Soc. Argent. Bot. 3: 36. (1949) (Linnaeus) de Candolle: in A. P. de Candolle and A. L. P. P. de Candolle, Prodr. 5: 452. (1836)
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