1. Packera aurea (L.) Á. Löve & D. Löve (golden ragwort, squaw weed)

Senecio aureus L.

S. aureus var. gracilis (Pursh) Hook.

S. aureus var. intercursus Fernald

Pl. 297 f, g; Map 1251

Plants perennial, from a short, stout to slender, ascending to horizontal, often branched rootstock, sometimes producing a few stolons. Stems mostly 1, occasionally 2 or 3, 20–80 cm long, sometimes pubescent with felty or cobwebby hairs toward the base when young, but usually glabrous or nearly so at flowering. Basal leaves usually present at flowering, long-petiolate, the petioles sometimes woolly or cobwebby when young, usually glabrous or nearly so at flowering, the blades 1–11 cm long, unlobed or rarely with few narrow, irregular lobes toward the base, oblong-ovate to nearly circular, truncate or cordate at the base, at least some deeply cordate, the tissue not extending along the petiole or extending only along the terminal portion of the petiole, rounded at the tip, the margins with blunt to sharp teeth, the surfaces glabrous. Stem leaves gradually reduced toward the stem tip, sessile or nearly so, the blades mostly deeply pinnately lobed, sometimes irregularly so, occasionally pinnately compound, the margins otherwise relatively sharply toothed, the surfaces glabrous. Involucre 4–8 mm long, glabrous or very sparsely hairy near the base. Ray florets usually 7–13, the lobe 6–13 mm long. Fruits 2.5–3.0 mm long, glabrous. 2n=44, 66, about 132. April–June.

Scattered, mostly in the Ozark Division, but also sporadically in the Glaciated Plains (eastern U.S. west to Minnesota and Texas; Canada). Banks of streams, rivers, and spring branches, fens, seepy ledges of bluffs, and occasionally bottomland forests; also rarely roadside ditches and depressions in pipeline or transmission line corridors.

For a discussion of difficulties in separating this species from P. pseudaurea, see the treatment of that species.