Flora of North America species comparison

1, erect (straight, stout), glabrous or hairy.

1–5+, ascending to erect (grayish brown to brown), moderately to densely hairy.

thin, scabrous, apices mucronate, abaxial faces glabrous (vein areoles indistinct, elongate), adaxial glabrous or sparsely scabrous (var. hesperium);

basal withering by flowering, petiolate to subpetiolate (petioles winged, ciliate, bases dilated, sheathing), blades elliptic-oblanceolate or obovate to suborbiculate, 10–80 × 5–20 mm, cuneate to attenuate, margins crenate-serrate, apices acute to obtuse or rounded;

proximal cauline withering by flowering, sessile or subsessile, blades lance-ovate or oblanceolate to linear-lanceolate, (40–)50–150 × (3–)10–20(–35) mm, progressively reduced distally, bases cuneate, ± decurrent, margins serrate, apices acute to acuminate;

distal sessile, blades oblanceolate to linear, 30–100(–140) mm, only slightly reduced distally, bases cuneate, margins entire.

(light grayish green) firm, margins entire, strigose, apices ± spine-tipped;

basal withering by flowering, sessile, blades oblanceolate, 10–40 × 3–10 mm, bases attenuate, margins usually entire, rarely remotely serrate, scabrous, apices acute to obtuse, rounded to mucronulate-spinose, faces glabrate to moderately strigose;

proximal cauline sessile, blades linear oblanceolate to oblong, 10–40(–60) × 1.5–4(–7) mm, reduced distally, bases cuneate, margins entire, coarsely ciliate, apices acute or obtuse, faces sparsely to densely appressed hispido-strigose;

distal sessile, blades linear-oblong to linear-lanceolate, 25–45 × 2–3 mm, bases cuneate, margins entire, apices acute, faces moderately to densely strigose.

0.5–5 cm, ± pilose, bracts 1–3(–5), linear-oblanceolate to -lanceolate, foliaceous, ciliate.

0.2–4 cm, densely hairy, bracts 1–3+, linear to lanceolate, densely hairy.

campanulate to cylindric, 3–8 mm.

campanulate, (4.5–)5–8 mm.

16–50;

corollas white to pinkish or pale blue-violet, laminae 3–10(–14) × 0.5–1.3 mm.

(15–)20–35;

corollas usually white, sometimes blue or pink, laminae (8–)18–30 × 1.1–1.4 mm.

(13–)20–40(–52);

corollas yellow becoming purple, 2.8–5.8 mm, tubes shorter than funnelform throats, lobes sometimes ± spreading, triangular, 0.4–1.2 mm.

(8–)18–30;

corollas yellow becoming brown, 2–2.5 mm, lobes triangular, 0.7–1.2 mm, glabrous.

in (3–)4–6 series, appressed or slightly spreading, linear-lanceolate to linear (innermost), sometimes slightly dilated distally, ± strongly unequal to subequal (var. hesperium), bases indurate 1/4–1/2, margins scarious, erose, hyaline, sparsely ciliolate, green zones lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, outer sometimes foliaceous (particularly var. hesperium), apices acute to acuminate (outer) or acuminate to caudate (inner), mostly mucronulate, abaxial faces glabrous, adaxial sparsely strigillose.

in 3–4 series, outer oblanceolate to spatulate (1.5–2 mm), inner linear-lanceolate (3–4 mm), unequal, bases (whitish to tan) ± indurate in basal 1/2–3/4, margins hyaline, scabrous proximally, green zones diamond-shaped, in distal 1/4–1/2, apices (outer) acute to obtuse, clear spine-tipped, spreading to reflexed, (inner) acuminate to attenuate, faces sparsely to moderately hispid-strigose.

in ample or diffuse to narrow, elongate, leafy, paniculiform arrays, branches ± ascending, rarely secund, branch leaves often longer than pedicels.

[(1–)10–200+] in racemiform to diffuse-paniculiform arrays (1–10+ per branch, usually not crowded).

gray or tan, obovoid, ± compressed, 1.5–2 mm, 4–5-nerved, faces sparsely strigillose;

pappi white to sordid or tawny, 5.5–6 mm.

dark brown, obovoid, not compressed, 2–2.5 mm, faint-nerved, faces densely strigose;

pappi whitish, 4.5–6 mm.