14. Bradburia Torr. & A. Gray

Two species, endemic to the southeastern U.S.

In the past, Bradburia has variously been included in Chrysopsis and Heterotheca. The consensus among recent workers (Nesom, 1991; Semple, 1996) is that the group is closely related to Chrysopsis, and the decision to treat Bradburia as a separate genus rather than a section of Chrysopsis is somewhat arbitrary (Nesom, 1997). Semple (1996) argued that because the two species involved have a suite of minor morphological features not otherwise found in Chrysopsis, segregating them into a separate genus makes sense for pragmatic reasons. In Missouri, where there are no other species of true Chrysopis present, the decision to follow Semple’s classification was made primarily to limit the taxonomic and nomenclatural differences between the present work and the forthcoming volume of the Flora of North America Project.

This genus was named to honor John Bradbury, one of the first two trained botanists to explore in Missouri. Interested readers may consult the introductory chapter on the history of floristic botany in Missouri in the first volume of the present work (Yatskievych, 1999) for a brief biography of this ill-fated early plant explorer.