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.