3. Verbesina helianthoides Michx. (yellow crownbeard)

Phaethusa helianthoides (Michx.) Britton

Pterophyton helianthoides (Michx.) Alexander

Pl. 291 f, g; Map 1239

Plants perennial herbs with fibrous, sometimes slightly fleshy roots and usually short, more or less stout rhizomes. Stems (20–)50–120 cm long, narrowly and sometimes incompletely winged, moderately to densely pubescent with short, fine, loosely ascending hairs. Leaves alternate or the lowermost leaves sometimes opposite, sessile or the lowermost leaves with a short, usually poorly differentiated, winged petiole, the base usually strongly decurrent below the attachment point as a pair of wings. Leaf blades (1–)5–55 cm long, lanceolate to elliptic or narrowly ovate, tapered at the base, angled or tapered to a sharply pointed tip, the margins usually finely toothed, occasionally nearly entire, the upper surface moderately to densely pubescent (and sometimes slightly roughened to the touch) with relatively soft, spreading, pustular-based hairs, the undersurface densely pubescent with appressed to somewhat spreading hairs (and usually felty to the touch). Inflorescences usually loose, open clusters with 2–10 heads, sometimes with only a solitary head. Involucre 9–16 mm in diameter, cup-shaped, with 16–21 bracts. Involucral bracts 6–9 mm long, narrowly lanceolate or narrowly oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate, ascending to loosely ascending at flowering, the outer surface moderately to densely hairy. Chaffy bracts narrowly lanceolate to narrowly oblong-oblanceolate, moderately to densely hairy, especially toward the tip. Ray florets 8–15, pistillate or sterile, the corolla 10–30 mm long, spreading, yellow. Disc florets 40–80(–120), the corolla 3.5–4.5 mm long, yellow. Pappus of the ray and disc florets usually similar (but that of the ray florets usually somewhat broader, flattened, and scalelike, sometimes absent in sterile florets), of 2 slender to relatively stout awns 0.5–1.5 mm long, smooth or with fine, upward-pointed barbs, more or less persistent at fruiting. Fruits ascending to somewhat spreading at maturity (forming a more or less hemispherical mass), 4–5 mm long, the body usually oblanceolate to narrowly obovate, narrowly to broadly winged, occasionally wingless, the surface glabrous or more commonly moderately to densely pubescent with short, stout, pustular-based hairs. 2n=68. May–October.

Scattered south of the Missouri River and north locally to Linn, Macon, and Ralls Counties ( Kansas to Texas east to Ohio, North Carolina, and Georgia). Upland prairies, savannas, glades, and mesic to dry upland forests; also railroads and roadsides.