Stephanomeria pauciflora
Stephanomeria diegensis
brownplume wirelettuce, few-flower wirelettuce, prairie skeletonplant, wire-lettuce
San Diego milk-aster, San Diego wirelettuce, San Diego wreathplant
1–5+, divaricately and intricately branched (often forming dense bushes), usually glabrous, rarely tomentose.
single, branches ascending or spreading, glabrous.
withered at flowering;
basal blades linear-lanceolate, runcinate, 3–7 cm, margins pinnately lobed (faces glabrous);
cauline much reduced and bractlike.
withered at flowering (glabrous);
basal blades linear to oblanceolate, runcinate, 3–10 cm, margins pinnately lobed;
cauline much reduced, bractlike.
3–10 mm.
3–4 mm.
8–11 mm (phyllaries 4–6, glabrous).
7–9 mm (sparsely glandular-puberulent).
5–6.
11–13.
of appressed bractlets.
of reflexed bractlets.
borne singly along branches.
borne singly or clustered along branches.
tan, 3.5–5 mm, faces tuberculate, grooved;
pappi of 15–20, usually tan, rarely white, bristles (connate in groups of 2–4, bases persistent), plumose on distal 80%.
light tan to brown, 1.9–2.3 mm, faces smooth, slightly bumpy or tuberculate, grooved;
pappi of 19–21, white bristles (falling), plumose on distal 80–85%.
= 16.
= 16.
Stephanomeria pauciflora
Stephanomeria diegensis
Stephanomeria pauciflora generally grows as an intricately branched, often rounded bush. Occasional plants, usually from Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and southern Utah, have long, flexuous stems and branches, an architecture that resembles one of the typical forms of S. tenuifolia. Some plants of S. pauciflora have white pappi, also typical of S. tenuifolia. It is not known if these plants represent uncommon and unusual individuals or if they are from populations in which all plants have those traits. It is also not known whether such plants of S. pauciflora grow near populations of S. tenuifolia; if so, they may result from interspecific hybridization. That is a possibility; experimental hybrid plants produced by crossing individuals from the two species were about 20% fertile. Such fertility suggests the species are sufficiently compatible that fully fertile segregants with variously intermediate morphologies could be expected where they hybridize in nature. The experimental crosses were made reciprocally between S. pauciflora from Riverside County, California (L. D. Gottlieb 6653), and S. tenuifolia from Wheeler County, Oregon (L. D. Gottlieb 6692); specimens of the six F1 hybrid plants that were produced are deposited at DAV. Plants of S. pauciflora that are densely tomentose throughout are occasionally found, particularly in the deserts of California and Nevada, and have been named S. cinerea or S. pauciflora var. parishii.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
The morphologic characteristics of Stephanomeria diegensis are a combination of those of S. exigua and S. virgata, and the species is thought to have evolved from genetic segregates of their hybridization (L. D. Gottlieb 1971; G. P. Gallez and Gottlieb 1982).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
KS Wildflowers
SW CO Wildflowers
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
