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Published In: Species Plantarum 2: 845. 1753. (1 May 1753) (Sp. Pl.) Name publication detailView in BotanicusView in Biodiversity Heritage Library
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 7/9/2009)
Acceptance : Accepted
Project Data     (Last Modified On 7/9/2009)
Status: Introduced

 

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1. Tanacetum balsamita L. (costmary, mint geranium)

Chrysanthemum balsamita L.

C. balsamita var. tanacetoides Boiss.

Balsamita major Desf.

B. major var. tanacetoides (Boiss.) Moldenke

Pl. 228 h, i; Map 955

Plants with rhizomes. Stems 30–120 cm long, glabrous toward the base, sparsely to moderately hairy toward the tip. Leaves 1–27 cm long, the basal and lower stem leaves usually much larger than the others, long-petiolate, grading relatively abruptly into the short-petiolate to sessile median and upper stem leaves. Leaf blades simple and unlobed or the lowermost rarely with a few deep, irregular basal lobes, oblanceolate to elliptic, mostly rounded at the tip, angled to long-tapered at the base, the margins bluntly and evenly toothed, both surfaces moderately to densely glandular and densely pubescent with appressed, grayish, silky hairs when young, sometimes the lowermost becoming glabrous or nearly so at maturity. Heads usually discoid. Involucre 3–7 mm long, cup-shaped, the bracts in 3–5 series, the main body narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate-triangular, tapered to a conspicuous, thin, papery tip, the margins also thin and nearly transparent, the outer surface glandular and hairy. Ray florets absent or the marginal florets sometimes pistillate, occasionally somewhat raylike but inconspicuous and not markedly enlarged, usually white. Disc florets with the corollas 1.5–2.7 mm long. Pappus a short collar or crown. Fruits 1.3–1.6 mm long, more or less circular in cross-section, mostly obscurely 10-ribbed. 2n=18, 54. August–October.

Introduced, known thus far from a single historical collection from Franklin County (native of Europe, Asia, introduced widely in North America). Fencerows and open, disturbed areas.

Tanacetum balsamita escapes and becomes naturalized sporadically, most commonly in New England and the Great Lakes region. Some botanists have segregated the species into its own genus, Balsamita Mill., based primarily on its unlobed leaves, but most botanists do not believe that the differences merit recognition of a separate monotypic genus (Soreng and Cope, 1991; Bremer, 1994). The rayed forms sometimes have been called var. tanacetoides Boiss.

 
 


 

 
 
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