Flora of North America species comparison

1–10+, erect or ascending, sometimes ± purplish (usually equaling or surpassing leaves), glabrous or sparsely villous, slightly more so distally.

20+, horizontal to erect;

petioles ± narrowly winged;

blades oblanceolate, oblong, or obovate (often runcinate), (4–)5–45 × (0.7–)1–10 cm, bases attenuate to narrowly cuneate, margins usually shallowly to deeply lobed to lacerate or toothed, lobes retrorse, broadly to narrowly triangular to nearly lanceolate, acute to long-acuminate, terminals ± as large as distal laterals, ultimate margins toothed or entire (secondary lobules irregular, perpendicular to retrorse), teeth minute to pronounced apices acute to acuminate or obtuse, faces glabrous or sparsely villous (commonly on midveins).

basal and/or cauline; alternate (proximal opposite in Shinnersoseris) [opposite]; petiolate or sessile;

margins usually dentate or pinnately lobed (then frequently runcinate), sometimes prickly, sometimes entire, rarely much divided (bases often clasping).

green to dark green or brownish green, tips dark gray or purplish, campanulate, 14–25 mm.

flat to convex, epaleate (sometimes bristly-setose) or paleate (paleae enfold and fall with subtended cypselae in Scolymus).

40–100+;

corollas yellow (orange-yellow), 15–22 × 1.7–2 mm (outer).

ligulate (bisexual, fertile);

corollas usually yellow to orange, sometimes cyanic or white (zygomorphic, 5-toothed);

anther bases usually tailed, apical appendages ovate to lanceolate or hardly developed (pollen sometimes brightly colored);

styles abaxially usually papillate to hirsute (mostly distally), branches filiform to stout, adaxially continuously stigmatic from bases almost to apices, apices rounded to acute, appendages essentially 0.

13–18 in 2 series, lanceolate, 2–2.8 mm wide, margins scarious (proximal 2/3) to narrowly scarious, apices acuminate, erose-scarious, usually hornless (seldom appendaged), callous.

usually persistent, usually in 3–5+ series, distinct, and unequal, sometimes in 1–2 series, distinct or connate, and subequal to equal, margins (seldom prickly) and/or apices sometimes notably scarious (phyllaries sometimes enfold and fall with subtended florets or cypselae, e.g., in Rhagadiolus).

of 12–18, reflexed, sometimes ± glaucous, lanceolate bractlets in 2 series, 6–12 × 2.8–3.5 mm, margins very narrowly white-scarious, sometimes villous-ciliate distally, apices acuminate, hornless.

0 or of 1–15+ bractlets in 1–3+ series.

homogamous (liguliflorous), usually in corymbiform or paniculiform arrays, sometimes borne singly (on scapiform peduncles), sometimes subsessile in axillary clusters on stems or among leaves of basal rosettes [aggregated in second-order heads].

olivaceous or olive-brown, or straw-colored to grayish, bodies oblanceoloid, (2–)2.5–2.8(–4) mm, cones shortly terete, 0.5–0.9 mm, beaks slender, 7–9 mm, ribs 4–12, sharp, faces proximally smooth to ± tuberculate, muricate in distal 1/3;

pappi white to sordid, 5–6(–8) mm.

usually monomorphic within heads, ± clavate, columnar, ellipsoid, fusiform, or prismatic, often compressed, obcompressed, or flattened, often beaked or apically tapered, bodies smooth, muricate, rugose, or tuberculate, often ribbed, sometimes winged (glabrous or hairy);

pappi (rarely 0) persistent or readily falling, usually of fine to coarse, often barbellate, sometimes plumose bristles, sometimes of awns or scales, sometimes combinations of bristles, awns, and/or scales (scales often aristate).

= 24, 40, [16, 32].