Senecio spartioides
Senecio scorzonella
broom groundsel, broom senecio, broom-like ragwort, grass-leaf ragwort, many-head groundsel
Sierra groundsel, Sierra ragwort
usually glabrous, sometimes sparsely, unevenly hairy.
closely lanate to floccose-tomentose, unevenly glabrescent.
usually multiple (branching and arching upward).
usually single, rarely clustered.
evenly distributed (proximal often smaller);
sessile or obscurely petiolate;
blades narrowly linear to filiform (or parted into linear-filiform lobes), 5–10 cm × 1–6 mm, bases ± linear, ultimate margins entire.
reduced distally; obscurely petiolate;
blades oblanceolate to lanceolate, (4–)6–12+ × (1–)1.5–3 cm, bases tapering to winged petioles, margins dentate to denticulate (denticles dark, cartilaginous; mid and distal leaves smaller, bractlike).
± 5 (± 13);
corolla laminae 8–12 mm.
usually ± 5, sometimes 0;
corolla laminae 5–8(–10) mm.
usually ± 8, sometimes ± 13, (5–)6–9(–10) mm, tips green or minutely black.
± 13, 3–5 mm, tips usually black.
0 or of 1–3+ (minute, inconspicuous) bractlets.
0 or of 1–3+ lance-deltate to lance-linear bractlets (mostly less than 1 mm).
10–20(–60) in compound corymbiform arrays (involucres cylindric or narrowly campanulate, 3–6 mm diam.).
(10–)14–24(–30+) in corymbiform arrays.
usually hirtellous, sometimes glabrous.
glabrous.
= 40.
Senecio spartioides
Senecio scorzonella
Plants with the leaves parted into lobes that are seldom more than 1 mm wide have been recognized as Senecio spartioides var. multicapitatus (or as S. multicapitatus); expression of the character is inconsistent throughout the range and recognition of the two entities is all but impossible to maintain.
Senecio spartioides apparently hybridizes with S. eremophilus in Garfield County, Utah, and perhaps elsewhere (cf., Holmgren, Reveal, and LaFrance 3463, BRY, KSC, NY). The name Senecio toiyabensis rests upon materials that suggest introgression with S. fremontii. Some specimens usually referred to 41. S. pattersonensis suggest introgression with S. spartioides.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Senecio scorzonella is restricted to high elevations in the Sierra Nevada–Cascade uplift and the White Mountains of California; it barely enters adjacent Nevada.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
SW CO Wildflowers
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
