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bristleleaf pricklyleaf, Dahlburg-daisy, shooting star

pricklyleaf

Habit Annuals (rarely persisting), green, to 30 cm, glabrous or sparsely hirtellous. Annuals, perennials, subshrubs, or shrubs, (1–)5–30 cm.
Stems

decumbent to erect.

erect to spreading or decumbent, branched from bases or ± throughout.

Leaves

mostly alternate (sometimes opposite at 1–3 proximal nodes);

blades usually lobed, 12–28 mm overall, lobes 7–15, linear to filiform, pliable (blades mostly not lobed in var. wrightii).

cauline; opposite or alternate; petiolate or sessile;

blades often pinnately lobed, blades or lobes spatulate to linear or filiform, ultimate margins entire or toothed, faces glabrous or arachnose, canescent, floccose, lanate, puberulent, or tomentose (bases little, if at all, bristly-ciliate, oil-glands scattered in laminae or submarginal).

Peduncles

30–80 mm, glabrous or hirtellous.

Involucres

obconic, 5–7 mm.

campanulate to obconic, 2–7 mm diam.

Receptacles

convex, smooth or ± pitted, epaleate.

Ray florets

10–21;

corollas yellow-orange, laminae 4–10 × 1.5–3 mm.

usually 5, 8, 13, or 21, pistillate, fertile;

corollas usually yellow to orange, rarely white.

Disc florets

50–100+;

corollas yellow, 2.5–4.5 mm (peripheral ± zygomorphic in some plants).

16–100+, bisexual, fertile;

corollas yellow to orange, tubes shorter than ± cylindric throats, lobes 5, deltate.

Phyllaries

12–22, margins of outer distinct less than 1/5 their lengths, abaxial faces glabrous or sparsely hirtellous.

persistent, 8–13(–22) in ± 2 series (strongly connate 2/3–7/8+ their lengths, seldom with outer margins distinct more than 1/2 their lengths, exceptions: T. aurea, T. pentachaeta var. belenidium), usually bearing oil-glands.

Calyculi

of 3–8 deltate to subulate bractlets, lengths less than 1/2 phyllaries.

0 or of 1–8 deltate to linear bractlets (bearing oil-glands).

Heads

usually radiate, sometimes discoid or radiant, borne singly.

Cypselae

2–3.5 mm;

pappi of erose and/or aristate scales 0.7–3.5 mm.

obpyramidal, obconic, or cylindro-clavate, glabrous or sparsely strigillose;

pappi persistent, coroniform or of 10(–20) distinct scales (each scale erose, or 1–5-aristate, or a fascicle of 5–9 basally connate bristles).

x

= 8.

Thymophylla tenuiloba

Thymophylla

Distribution
from FNA
TX; n Mexico
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from USDA
sw United States; Mexico [Introduced in West Indies, South America, Asia, Africa]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 4 (4 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Species 13 (8 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
1. Leaf blades seldom lobed (linear to spatulate, usually entire, rarely with 3–5 toothlike lobes)
var. wrightii
1. Leaf blades lobed (lobes 7–15 linear)
→ 2
2. Pappi of 3–5-aristate scales
var. tenuiloba
2. Pappi of truncate to lanceolate and/or 1-aristate scales
→ 3
3. Pappi of 5 erose scales alternating with 5unequal, 1-aristate scales
var. treculii
3. Pappi of 5–10 lanceolate to muticous scales, all ± erose or 1–3, 1-aristate
var. texana
1. Leaf blades not lobed (margins entire, toothed, or distally 3-fid); calyculi: lengths of bractlets usually 1/2+ phyllaries
→ 2
1. Leaf blades usually lobed (lobes 3–15+, linear to filiform, blades linear, usually entire in T. tenuiloba var. wrightii); calyculi 0, or lengths of bractlets less than 1/2 phyllaries
→ 4
2. Plants green, usually puberulent, sometimes glabrescent, rarely glabrous; leaves mostly opposite
T. acerosa
2. Plants ashy white, arachnose, lanate, floccose, or tomentose; leaves mostly alternate
→ 3
3. Stems spreading, often prostrate; leaf blades spatulate
T. micropoides
3. Stems erect; leaf blades linear to filiform, sometimes distally 3-fid
T. tephroleuca
4. Perennials or subshrubs (sometimes flowering first year); leaves mostly opposite
→ 5
4. Annuals (rarely persisting); leaves mostly alternate (sometimes opposite at 1–3 proximal nodes)
→ 6
5. Plants green, usually puberulent to canescent, sometimes glabrescent or glabrous; calyculi 0 or of 1–5 deltate bractlets
T. pentachaeta
5. Plants ashy white, tomentose; calyculi of 1–3 subulate bractlets
T. setifolia
6. Calyculi of 3–8 bractlets; disc florets 50–100+
T. tenuiloba
6. Calyculi 0, or of 1–2 bractlets; disc florets 25–45
→ 7
7. Margins of outer phyllaries distinct nearly to bases
T. aurea
7. Margins of outer phyllaries distinct less than 1/2+ their lengths
T. concinna
Source FNA vol. 21, p. 242. FNA vol. 21, p. 239. Author: John L. Strother.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Heliantheae > subtribe Pectidinae > Thymophylla Asteraceae > tribe Heliantheae > subtribe Pectidinae
Sibling taxa
T. acerosa, T. aurea, T. concinna, T. micropoides, T. pentachaeta, T. setifolia, T. tephroleuca
Subordinate taxa
T. tenuiloba var. tenuiloba, T. tenuiloba var. texana, T. tenuiloba var. treculii, T. tenuiloba var. wrightii
T. acerosa, T. aurea, T. concinna, T. micropoides, T. pentachaeta, T. setifolia, T. tenuiloba, T. tephroleuca
Synonyms Hymenatherum tenuilobum, Dyssodia tenuiloba Dyssodia section Gnaphalopsis, Dyssodia section Hymenatherum, Hymenatherum
Name authority (de Candolle) Small: Fl. S.E. U.S., 1295, 1341. (1903) Lagasca: Gen. Sp. Pl., 25. (1816)
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