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ring grass sunflower, thrift mock goldenweed, thrifty goldenweed

Habit Plants cespitose, sometimes densely so, 2–29 cm; taproots stout.
Stems

proximally clothed with marcescent leaves, usually glabrous, sometimes sparsely scabrous, usually viscid, sometimes eglandular.

Leaves

basal; narrowly petiolate;

blades, 1- or 3-nerved, linear to narrowly oblanceolate or spatulate, 17–90 × 1–7(–12) mm, rigid, attenuate, margins sometimes ciliate (often minutely), viscid-glandular veins conspicuously raised abaxially, apices acute, faces ± scabrous or glabrous, gland-dotted, viscid.

Peduncles

10–130 mm, smooth and viscid.

Involucres

campanulate to hemispheric, 8–21 × 6–14 mm.

Ray florets

5–15;

laminae elliptic to oblong, 5.5–18.5 × 2–6 mm.

Disc florets

21–39;

corollas funnelform to vase-shaped, 4–9 mm, tubes glabrous or rarely sparsely hairy, lobes 0.7–1.3 mm, ca. 1/8–1/6 length of corollas;

anthers 1.8–3.5 mm, style-branch appendages subulate to lanceolate, 1.2–2.3 × 0.5 mm, stigmatic lines 0.6–1.9 mm, 1/2–3/4 as long as style-branch appendages.

Phyllaries

12–26 in 3 series, 1- (or 3)-nerved (often ± keeled), strongly unequal, outer ovate to oblong, 3–8 × 1.5–4(–7.5) mm, inner oblong, 5.5–10 × 1.5–3.5 mm, proximally indurate, distally chartaceous, green portions about as long as broad, margins scarious, sometimes broadly so, entire, apices obtuse to rounded, minutely apiculate, viscid abaxially.

Heads

1–2(–4).

Cypselae

2–6 mm, lengths 1/2–3/4 disc corollas, faces sericeous;

pappus bristles 60–75, 3.5–7.5 mm, nearly equaling disc corollas.

Stenotus armerioides

Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CO; KS; MT; ND; NE; NM; SD; UT; WY; SK
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[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

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

Key
1. Stems 10–29 cm or leaves 3-nerved, narrowly oblanceolate to spatulate, 3–7 mm wide
var. armerioides
1. Stems 3.5–8 cm; leaves essentially 1-nerved, linear, 1–1.5(–2.5) mm wide (Duschesne and Uintah Counties, Utah)
var. gramineus
Source FNA vol. 20, p. 176.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Stenotus
Sibling taxa
S. acaulis, S. lanuginosus
Subordinate taxa
S. armerioides var. armerioides, S. armerioides var. gramineus
Synonyms Haplopappus armerioides
Name authority Nuttall: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 335. (1840)
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