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+, ascending to erect (straight, sometimes stout), proximally glabrous, distally ± densely hirtellous.

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.

thin, margins often slightly revolute, scabrous, apices mucronate or mucronulate, abaxial faces sparsely to moderately hispid, especially along veins, adaxial glabrous (midveins scabrous, veins marked) to strigoso-hispid (basal);

basal withering by flowering (new winter rosette sometimes developing), petiolate (petioles 1–2 times as long as blades, sometimes narrowly winged, sheathing, densely pilose or hirsute), blades ovate to lance-ovate, 10–60 × 10–35 mm, deeply to shallowly cordate or rounded, margins crenate or crenate-serrate, apices obtuse to acute;

proximal cauline mostly persistent, narrowly petiolate (petioles slender, progressively reduced distally, bases at most slightly clasping), blades ovate to lanceolate, 50–150 × 20–60(–70) mm, progressively reduced distally, bases shallowly cordate to subcordate, truncate, or rounded, sometimes oblique, margins entire, scabrous or shallowly crenate-serrate (proximal), apices acute to acuminate;

distal short-petiolate (petioles sometimes narrowly winged, sometimes slightly clasping) or sessile (distalmost, rameal), blades ovate to lanceolate (rameal lance-linear to linear, sharply smaller), 8–80 × 1–40 mm, gradually reduced distally, bases rounded to cuneate or attenuate, margins entire to subentire, apices acute to acuminate.

(0.2–)0.5–4 cm, bracts 4–8(–17).

0.2–3(–5) cm, densely hirtellous, bracts 3–10+, ovate or lanceolate to subulate, grading into phyllaries.

cylindric to turbinate, 5–7(–8.2) mm.

cylindro-campanulate, 4–6 mm.

16–30(–54) in 1–3 series;

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

13–15(–20);

corollas usually blue or purple-blue, seldom pinkish or white, laminae (10–)11–16 × 1.3–3.1 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.

16–23(–28?);

corollas light yellow becoming reddish purple, 4.6–7 mm, tubes shorter than funnelform throats, lobes lanceolate, 0.4–1.1 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 4–5(–6) series, appressed, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate (outer) to linear-lanceolate or linear (inner), strongly unequal, bases indurate 1/2–5/6, margins scarious, erose, hyaline, ciliolate, green zones lanceolate to diamond-shaped (midveins below green zone sometimes inflated and brownish), apices acute to acuminate, often involute, mucronulate, faces strigilloso-hirsutulous.

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

usually in open, diffuse to narrow, paniculiform arrays, sometimes racemiform, branches widely spreading, usually divaricate to arching, sometimes ascending, sometimes ± secund, abundantly leafy.

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.

dull purple or brown, oblong-obovoid, compressed, 2.5–3.7 mm, 4–7-nerved, faces glabrous;

pappi reddish brown, tawny, or rose-tinged, 4–6.2 mm.

= 16, 32.