Flora of North America species comparison

1, erect (often with purple or purplish brown areas), glabrous or glabrate, sometimes strigillose in leaf axils.

1–5+, erect (straight, often slender, brittle), densely or sparsely strigose to glabrescent or glabrate.

thin (green to dark green), margins often strigilloso-ciliolate, faces glabrous;

basal withering by flowering, long-petiolate (petiole bases sheathing), sparsely ciliate, blades ovate to oblanceolate, 10–90 × 6–14 mm, bases attenuate to cuneate, rounded, margins entire or serrulate or crenulate, apices rounded, obtuse, or acute;

proximal cauline withering by flowering, petiolate, subpetiolate, or sessile, blades narrowly lanceolate or subulate, 20–100(–200) × 1.5–10(–20) mm, bases attenuate, margins subentire, entire, or serrulate, apices acute to acuminate;

distal sessile, blades narrowly lanceolate to subulate, 5–113 × 0.5–5.5 mm, apices acuminate.

firm, margins entire to crenulate-serrate, recurved, scabrous, apices sharply white-mucronate, abaxial faces glabrous or glabrate to sparsely strigillose, adaxial glabrous or glabrate to submarginally scabrous (short-strigose), cauline withering by flowering (except on array branches), often with axillary leaf clusters;

basal withering by flowering, petiolate, petioles winged, sheathing, strigose-ciliate, blades oblanceolate to spatulate (often declined), 8–50 × 3–15 mm, bases attenuate to cuneate, margins crenate-serrate, apices obtuse or rounded to ± acute;

proximal cauline (mostly declined) subpetiolate (petioles widely winged, clasping) or sessile (then not or barely clasping), blades linear-oblanceolate, 25–120 × 1.5–9 mm, bases cuneate to slightly attenuate;

distal (ascending or spreading) sessile, blades oblong or linear-lanceolate to linear, 2–45 × 0.5–4 mm, reduced distally (abruptly on branches), bases cuneate to rounded, not clasping, margins entire or serrate.

(0.2–)0.5–4 cm, bracts 4–8(–17).

slender, usually stiff (sometimes lax), (0.5–)1–5 cm (rarely subsessile), progressively reduced distally, usually not secund, sparsely strigillose or glabrous, bracts 5–16+, spreading to ascending, linear-oblong or -elliptic to subulate or linear, progressively reduced distally, grading into phyllaries.

cylindric to turbinate, 5–7(–8.2) mm.

cylindro-campanulate, (3–)4.5–6.3 mm.

16–30(–54) in 1–3 series;

corollas white, pink, or lavender, laminae 1.3–7 × 0.2–1.3 mm.

15–33;

corollas pale blue, pink, or lavender to white, laminae (4–)5–7(–8) × 1–1.7 mm.

4–10(–13);

corollas yello, sometimes tinged with purple, 3.4–5.2 mm, throats narrowly funnelform, lobes ± spreading to erect, narrowly triangular, 0.3–0.7 mm, glabrous.

15–30;

corollas cream to pale yellow turning pink, 3.5–4.5 mm, tubes shorter than to equal to narrowly funnelform throats, lobes lanceolate, (0.4–)0.6–1.1 mm.

in 3–5 series, broadly or narrowly lanceolate to subulate, unequal, bases indurate, margins hyaline, often purple-tinged, entire, green zones lanceolate (usually narrow, sometimes broad and covering most of distal portion), apices acute, faces glabrous.

in 4–6 series, appressed or slightly spreading, oblong-oblanceolate (outer) to linear-oblanceolate or linear (innermost), strongly unequal, bases indurate (1/2–)2/3–4/5, margins hyaline, scarious, erose, distally ciliolate, green zones oblanceolate to elliptic (subapical), apices acute to obtuse (scarious), sometimes faintly reddish, mucronulate, faces usually glabrous, sometimes glabrate.

(10–) 30–100(–150), in open, diffuse, paniculiform arrays.

in remote, diffuse, open, paniculiform arrays, branches numerous, ascending to stiffly ascending, secondary ones stiff, racemiform (usually not secund).

light brown to purple, narrowly obovoid to fusiform, sometimes ± compressed, (1.2–)1.5–2.7(–3) mm, 5-nerved, faces sparsely strigillose;

pappi white, (3–)3.5–5.5 mm.

pink or stramineous with pink streaks, or gray (± dark, nerves stramineous), oblong-obovoid, sometimes ± compressed, 1.5–2.5 mm, 3–4-nerved (nerves prominent), faces strigillose;

pappi white to sordid, 4 mm.

= 16, 32.