Flora of North America species comparison

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

1–5+, ascending to erect, densely puberulent to lanate, especially distally.

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.

thin, margins entire, apices acute, faces densely lanate-puberulent;

basal often withering by flowering, subpetiolate, blades oblanceolate, 15–50 × 5–20 mm, bases cuneate, margins entire, apices acute, faces densely lanate;

proximal cauline sessile or subpetiolate, blades oblanceolate, 50–150 × 10–25 mm, bases slightly clasping, rarely auriculate;

distal sessile, blades lanceolate, 30–100 × 10–20 mm, reduced distally, bases tapered, ± auriculate, apices acute.

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

densely cinereous to lanate, bracts 0–3, lanceolate to narrowly ovate.

campanulate to cylindric, 3–8 mm.

campanulate, 7–9 mm.

16–50;

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

20–35;

corollas violet, laminae 12–20 × 1–2 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.

35–70;

corollas yellow, 5–6.5 mm, lobes triangular, 0.5–1 mm.

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 4–5(–6) series, squarrose, oblong to oblanceolate, unequal, bases of outer indurate less than 1/3, margins entire, green zones oblong-linear to oblanceolate, apices acute or obtuse (sometimes minutely mucronate), faces densely puberulent to lanate.

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

in corymbiform to paniculiform arrays, branches to 20 cm.

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.

brown, cylindric to obovoid, not compressed, 2.5–3.5 mm, 4–5-nerved, faces hairy;

pappi whitish, 5–7 mm.

= 32.