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Published In: De Fructibus et Seminibus Plantarum. . . . 2(3): 410, pl. 167, f. 3. 1791. (Fruct. Sem. Pl.) Name publication detailView in BotanicusView in Biodiversity Heritage Library
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 8/11/2017)
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Project Data     (Last Modified On 8/10/2009)

 

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59. Antennaria Gaertn. (pussytoes)

(Bayer, 1993)

Plants perennial, dioecious, fibrous-rooted, with more or less leafy stolons (with rhizomes elsewhere), often forming colonies. Flowering stems erect or ascending, moderately to densely woolly, the hairs sometimes becoming thinner with age. Basal leaves persistent at flowering, much larger than the lower stem leaves. Stem leaves several, sessile, the margins entire, both surfaces densely white-woolly or the upper surface sparsely hairy to glabrous. Inflorescences terminal, relatively dense clusters, occasionally appearing as small panicles, flat-topped to more commonly rounded, the individual heads mostly short-stalked. Heads with all staminate or all pistillate florets, the pistillate heads very rarely with a few central staminate florets, the staminate heads with the involucre usually slightly shorter than those of the pistillate ones. Involucre narrowly ovoid to narrowly bell-shaped at flowering, becoming broadly bell-shaped or funnel-shaped at fruiting or when pressed, the bracts in 5–8 overlapping series, appressed when young, often somewhat spreading with age or upon drying, those of the outer few series shorter and ovate, densely woolly, with short, broadly pointed tips; those of the inner few series noticeably longer and narrowly lanceolate, sparsely woolly, with elongate, tapered, thin tips, green (turning straw-colored or brown with age) toward the base, white to translucent toward the tip, usually at least somewhat purplish-tinged. Receptacle flat or convex, naked. Corollas slender, those of the staminate florets shorter than those of the pistillate florets, tubular or those of the staminate florets narrowly trumpet-shaped, white or yellow, sometimes reddish- or purplish-tinged. Pappus of the pistillate florets of numerous slightly longer capillary bristles, that of the staminate florets of fewer slightly shorter bristles, the bristles all or mostly free and shed individually or in small groups, minutely toothed and sometimes slightly expanded and narrowly club-shaped at the tip. Fruits 1.0–1.5 mm long, narrowly elliptic-obovoid, not or only slightly flattened, the surface appearing pebbled or roughened with minute papillae, brown to olive brown. Seventy to 100 species, North America, South America, Europe, Asia.

Species recognition in Antennaria is difficult because hybridization, polyploidy, and apomixis are widespread among the North American taxa. Fortunately, relatively few taxa have been documented thus far from Missouri. The classification of Bayer and Stebbins (1982) represents a practical compromise between the need to provide taxonomic recognition of the polyploid hybrid derivatives as separate species from their diploid progenitors and the problems for identification that would be created if each of the races resulting from similar but independent hybridization events were attempted to be recognized. See Cronquist (1946) for a more taxonomically conservative interpretation.

Bayer and Stebbins (1982) mapped the occurrence of A. solitaria Rydb. from southeasternmost Missouri without citation of locality or specimens. Randall Bayer (then of the University of Alberta) kindly checked his notes and was unable to substantiate the report, thus it is excluded from the Missouri flora for now. It does occur in adjacent portions of Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee, so it should be searched for in Missouri. Antennaria solitaria differs from other members of the genus in consistently having a single relatively large head (involucre 8–14 mm long) at the tip of each flowering stem. Vegetatively, it resembles A. parlinii in having broad basal leaves with multiple main veins, and, in fact, A. solitaria is one of the diploid sexual progenitors in the A. parlinii complex.

 

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1 1. Basal leaves with the blades less than 2 cm wide, with 1 main vein, occasionally with an additional faint pair of main veins ... 1. A. NEGLECTA

Antennaria neglecta
2 1. Basal leaves with the blades mostly 2.0–4.5 cm wide, with 3 or 5 main veins ... 2. A. PARLINII Antennaria parlinii
 
 
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