Stephanomeria pauciflora |
Stephanomeria exigua |
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brownplume wirelettuce, few-flower wirelettuce, prairie skeletonplant, wire-lettuce |
skeletonplant, small wirelettuce |
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Habit | Perennials, 20–50 cm (caudices woody). | Annuals, 10–200 cm (taproots relatively large). | ||||||||||||||||
Stems | 1–5+, divaricately and intricately branched (often forming dense bushes), usually glabrous, rarely tomentose. |
single, branches divaricately or freely spreading, glabrous or sparsely pubescent. |
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Leaves | withered at flowering; basal blades linear-lanceolate, runcinate, 3–7 cm, margins pinnately lobed (faces glabrous); cauline much reduced and bractlike. |
withered at flowering; basal blades linear to oblanceolate, runcinate, 3–10 cm, margins pinnately lobed; cauline much reduced, bractlike. |
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Peduncles | 3–10 mm. |
2–10 mm (along branches), or 10–40 mm (in paniculiform arrays). |
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Involucres | 8–11 mm (phyllaries 4–6, glabrous). |
5–7 mm (glabrous, puberulent, or densely stipitate-glandular). |
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Florets | 5–6. |
5–11. |
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Calyculi | of appressed bractlets. |
of appressed or reflexed bractlets (glabrous, pubescent, or stipitate-glandular). |
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Heads | borne singly along branches. |
borne singly or clustered along branches or in paniculiform arrays. |
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Cypselae | 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 dark brown, 2.1–6.8 mm, faces smooth to tuberculate, grooved; pappi of 5–24 tan or white bristles (falling or widened bases persistent, bases connate in groups of 2–4 distal portions breaking off), plumose on distal 50–85%. |
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2n | = 16. |
= 16. |
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Stephanomeria pauciflora |
Stephanomeria exigua |
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Phenology | Flowering May–Sep. | |||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Sandy, gravelly washes and slopes in desert shrub communities, juniper woodlands, open, sandy short-grass plains | |||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 200–1500 m (700–4900 ft) | |||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; KS; NM; NV; OK; TX; UT; WY; Mexico (Chihuahua, Sonora)
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AZ; CA; CO; ID; NM; NV; OR; TX; UT; WA; nw Mexico
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Discussion | 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.) |
Subspecies 5 (5 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 19, p. 356. | FNA vol. 19, p. 353. | ||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Cichorieae > Stephanomeria | Asteraceae > tribe Cichorieae > Stephanomeria | ||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Prenanthes pauciflora, S. cinerea, S. lygodesmoides, S. pauciflora var. parishii | |||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (Torrey) A. Nelson: in J. M. Coulter and A. Nelson, New Man. Bot. Centr. Rocky Mt., 588. (1909) | Nuttall: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 428. (1841) | ||||||||||||||||
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