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Fall FloraLecture List 5

Sunflower and Sedge Families:DYC’s on Parade

Asteraceae (Compositae)• Sunflower Family – 1535 genera / 23,000

spp.• Second largest plant family (after orchids)• 10% of flowering plants• Cosmopolitan – esp. in open, dry habitats• Leaves simple, but often deeply lobed,

dissected• Inflorescence in head (capitulum), subtended

by involucre of bracts (phyllaries)

Floral Features• Sepals modified into persistent

pappus– Scales– Awns– Bristles– simple hairlike– plumose

• Petals connate, 2 types– radial (disk or filiform)– bilateral (ligulate of various types)

Floral Features• Stamens connate and adnate to corolla• Staminal tube releases pollen to inside• Elongating style pushes pollen out of tube

= Plunger Pollination• Stigma lobes open after pollen removed =

protandrous – enforces outcrossing• 2 carpellate gynoecium (2 stigma lobes),

but only one basal ovule• Fruit an achene, often with attached pappus

Inflorescence Types3 Main types of heads, combos of 2 flower types

1. Discoid Head – perfect disk flowers only2. Radiate Head – Female peripheral ray

(ligulate) flowers and interior perfect disk flowers

3. Ligulate Head – composed completely of perfect, ligulate flowers Aster –

Sterile rayAnd perfectDisk florets;Radiate Head

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Taraxacum and Cichorium - Ligulate

Cirsium and Cynaria - Discoid

Echinacea

Helianthus

Solidago

RadiateHeads

Identification of Asteraceae

• Key Features to check:– Number, type, and arrangement of phyllaries– Types of flowers and arrangement in inflors.– Petal type in disk and ray flowers– Type of pappus– Type of style and stigma (branching, etc.)

Common or Western Yarrow, Milfoil (N)Achillea millefolium L. (A. lanulosa Nutt.)

Habit: Perennial herb, arising singly or as a loose cluster, knee high; stems have dense wooly hairs; flowers April to July, and reproduces from seeds and rhizomes.

Habitat: NATIVE; Occurs in prairies, sagebrush plains, pastures, roadsides, and disturbed sites.

Uses: styptic (stops bleeding), taken internally or externally. Stops itch of bites and stings. Aromatic – insect repellent. Soothing teas for colds and stomach aches

Common Yarrow, Milfoil (N)Achillea millefolium L.

Leaves: Alternate, simple, fern-like(finely divided)

Flowers: Flowers radiate, 5 white to pink ray flowers, with ~30 yellow disc flowers. They are borne in flat-topped inflorescenses.

Fruit: a flattened, hairless achene

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(I) Common BurdockArctium minus (Hill) Bernh.

Habit: Introduced (Europe), biennial herb, large (3-10 ft), coarse, erect, much branched in second year

Habitat: Grows along roadsides, ditchbanks, in pastures and waste areas. Burs tangle in the hair of livestock allowing seeds to be distributed to new areas. Flower and seed production occur from July to September

Uses: The hooked bristles of bur-like flower heads are said to have inspired the invention of Velcro

Common BurdockLeaves: Alternate,

large, cordate, hairy. Rosette the first year.

Flowers/inflorescence: Flower heads discoid, involucrebracts with hooked prickles. Flowers are purple,

Fruits/seeds: Fruit is an achene about ¼ inch long. Entire bur-like head dispersed as a unit

Big Sage, Big Sagebrush (N)Artemisia tridentata Nutt.

Habit: Perennial, aromatic, evergreen, shrub with a rounded crown, 3 to 10 feet tall. Highly branched above short trunk Flowers August to September. Reproduces from seed

Habitat: Native; occurs in valleys, basins, and mountain slopes, at elevations between 2,500 and 10,000 feet.

Uses: leaves produce aromatic oils – camphor;seeds are edible; leaves said to aid digestion. Poor forage for ungulates and livestock (benefits from overgrazing). Does not survive fire.

Big Sage, Big SagebrushLeaves: Alternate, simple;

gray-green color; covered with dense, silver hairs. Spatula-shaped (narrower at base); tip is usually bluntly 3-lobed. Two crops per year (spring and fall). Fall leaves smaller, thicker, cold tolerant.

Flowers: Heads of 5-8 small inconspicuous yellow-brown discoid flowers; in dense linear clusters, forming in the fall.

Fruit/seed: A resinous, brown, flattened achenewith no pappus.

Threetip Sage, Cut-leaf Sage (N) Artemisa tripartita Rydb.

Habit: Wintergreen shrub, about 2 ft tall; smaller and not as woody as Big Sage

Habitat: Native, in similar habitats with Big Sage, often in moister or more favorable sites and slightly higher elevations.

More fire-tolerant than Big Sage - sprouts freely after fire.

Threetip Sage, Cut-leaf Sage (N)Leaves: narrowly 3-

lobed (fingered); wedge-shaped; with the leaf tips long and linear

Flowers: Yellow, in discoid heads; Narrower inflorescence than Big Sage

Fruits/seeds: achenes lacking pappus

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Western Mugwort, Louisiana Sage,Prairie Sage, Silver Sage, (N)

Artemisia ludoviciana Nutt.

Habit: Aromatic, Knee high, erect, perennial herb (non-woody), covered in white-wooly hairs, from creeping rhizomes

Habitat: Native;dry, open sites

Western Mugwort, Louisiana Sage, Silver Sage

Leaves: Alternate; Several forms on same plant; lance-shaped on upper parts, basal leaves usually lobed with pointed tips; leaves are densely hairy

Flower: small discoid heads of small, inconspicuous flowers, heads numerous with dense white hairs.

Fruit: a pappus free achene

Western Mugwort, Louisiana Sage, Silver SageUses: Widely used

medicinally and ceremonially; Sage bundles burned as incense; Brewed as tea for cold and fever and as poultices to treat skin ailments; aromatic – used as a deodorant; used as snuff for nosebleeds and headaches. Closely related to tarragon (A. dracunculus) – a culinary herb.

Aster (N) Aster spp.

Characteristics: Asters are generally fall-blooming –white-purple daisy-like plants. Heads are radiateand ray florets are generally few and wide. Phyllaries (involucralbracts) are in 3+ overlapping rows (like shingles), glandular, and dark at the tips. Plants usually rhizomatous.

Erigeron spp. (fleabanes) are superficially similar, but mostly spring-blooming

AsterFlowers/inflorescence:

white, blue or violet ray flowers with yellow disc flowers,Involucral bracts in 3-5 overlapping rows and generally glandular; few to many flowerheads in rounded to flat topped clusters; bloom from July to October

Fruit/seeds: achenes; variously hairy, with white to reddish, bristly pappus

(N) Engelmann’s Aster, Michaelmas Daisy

Aster engelmannii (Eat.) Gray

Habit: Perennial herb; tall (1-2 m) robust plants with few, white to pink flowers, stems ribbed

Habitat: Open woods, foothills to high elevation

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Engelmann’s Aster, Michaelmas DaisyLeaves: alternate,

simple, entire, sessileFlowers and

inflorescence: Few white to pinkish ray flowers in radiate heads; involucrebracts tough, keeled, red to purple-tinged;

Fruit/seeds: Achenesseveral-nerved with bristly pappus

Common, Rubber, or Gray Rabbitbrush (N) Chrysothamnus nauseosus (Pall.) Britt.

Habit: perennial, deciduous shrub (<1 m), stems rubbery, densely covered in grey, felt-like hairs; many branched, with a flat-topped growth form

Habitat: Native; favors sunny, open sites throughout a wide variety of habitats; particularly common on disturbed sites.

Rubber rabbitbrush is cold hardy, and tolerant of both moisture and salt stress; it exhibits a number of adaptations for surviving in an arid environment. One of these is that leaves and stems are covered with a felt-like layer of hairs that insulate the plant and reduce transpiration

Gray Rabbitbrush (N) Chrysothamnus nauseosus (Pall.) Britt.

• Leaves– Alternate, linear to spatula

shaped blades with entire margins. The leaves are 1 to 3 nerved

– Grass like and not twisted

• Stems– Twigs are erect, flexible

(rubbery), yellowish-green, and covered with a dense felt-like covering

– Trunk is gray-brown with small cracks. The bark is fibrous and somewhat shreddy

Gray Rabbit-brush (N)Chrysothamnus nauseosus (Pall.) Britt

• Uses: American Indians made chewing gum from pulverized wood and bark

• It was also used as tea, cough syrup, yellow dye, and for chest pains

• small commercial source for rubber extraction, and was studied extensively during World War II as a substitute for commercial rubber.

Green or Douglas Rabbitbrush (N)Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus (Hook.) Nutt.

Habit: Woody perennial shrub; stems not hairy

Habitat: Native; Grows in dry, open sites in the plains, foothills and montanezones; often grows with sagebrush and grey rabbit-brush

Green Rabbit-brush (N)Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus (Hook.) Nutt.

Leaves: Alternate, linear, and with at least one twist

Stems: Brittle, hairless or only slightly hairy, with brown bark

Flowers: Heads strictly discoid, small, yellow heads of 5 disc florets, in dense clusters at branch tips

Fruits/seeds: Hairy, linear achenes: pappus of white hairs

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(N) Curlycup gumweed, ResinweedGrindelia squarrosa (Pursh) Dunal

Habit: Forb, erect growing 1-3 ft, annual, biennial, perennial with 1 to several branched stems. Grows from a taproot. Starts growth in early spring, flowers July to August

Habitat: favors dry areas, but grows on moist soils that lack other vegetation from 3,000 to 8,000 feet; most common in dry prairies, waste places, roadsides, railroads, depleted rangelands, and abandoned croplands. It often forms almost pure stands. Curlycupgumweed increases under drought conditions.

(N) Curlycup gumweed, ResinweedGrindelia squarrosa (Pursh) Dunal

• Leaves: Alternate and oblong with toothed edges, gland-dotted, and gummy

• Flowers/Inflorescence:Numerous and yellow. There are bracts at the base of the flower which are shiny, sticky, and curved downward (hence the name "squarrose" in the name). Fruit is an achene.

Curlycup gumweedUses and Management: Resistant to

grazing and drought; unpalatable to cattle, sheep, and horses. Tannins, volatile oils, resins, bitter alkaloids, and glucosides give it an unpleasant taste. If consumed, it may lead to poisoning due to the selenium accumulation.

American Indians used the gummy secretions to relieve asthma, bronchitis, and colic. Pawnee Indians boiled leaves and flowering tops to treat saddle sores and raw skin. Today, medicinal uses include treatment of bronchial spasm, whooping cough, asthma, and rashes caused by poison ivy. Curlycupgumweed extract is valuable as a stimulant, sedative, astringent, purgative, emetic, diuretic, antiseptic, and disinfectant.

(N) Broom snakeweed, matchbrush, broomweed

Gutierrezia sarothrae (Pursh) Britt. & RusbyHabit: Herbs or small

shrubs, perennial, erect, slender, brittle branches; grows new from the roots each year

Habitat: Dry, open places, generally at lower elevation

Uses: Plant is poisonous to grazers

(N) Broom snakeweed, matchbrush

Leaves: alternate, linear, untwisted

Flowerheads: small, numerous heads in a flat-topped infl.; inconspicuous ray flowers generally 3-8, disk flowers generally 3-8

Fruits/seeds Achenes, pappus of narrow scales

(N) SneezeweedHelenium autumnale L.

Habit: perennial herb to 1 m tall, globose flower heads with 3-lobed ray flowers

Habitat: Moist, low groundUses: Poisonous

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(N) SneezeweedHelenium autumnale L.

Leaves simple, entire, lance-shaped;

Flowerheads: Radiate, 10 to 20, 3-toothed ray flowers, in heads with hemispherical yellow disc flowers

(N) Rocky Mountain Helianthella, Little-sunflower

Helianthella uniflora (Nutt.) T. & G.

• Habit:• Slender, perennial,

single-flowered herb• Habitat:• Grows in dry to moist

meadows and slopes• Foothills, montane

and subalpine zones

(N) Rocky Mountain Helianthella, Little-sunflower

Helianthella uniflora (Nutt.) T. & G.• Leaves: Leaves

usually 3-nerved• Flowers: Bright

yellows, single flowerheads

• Fruit: 4-sided achenes

(N) Common SunflowerHelianthus annuus L.

• Habit: Annual, forb/herb, stems erect

• Habitat: Dry to moist, open sites, disturbed ground, plains to foothills

• Uses: The seeds of the achenes are eaten by humans. Crushed seeds boiled in water let off oil that can be skimmed from the surface and used like olive oil. Sunflower seed sprouts are also edible.

(N) Common SunflowerHelianthus annuus L.

Leaves Mainly alternate, egg to heart shaped, lowest leaves opposite.

Flowerheads: Yellow with bright yellow ray florets around a large, reddish-brown button of disc florets; 1-few flowerheads in June through September

Fruits/seeds Thick, flattened, 2- or 4 angled achene; pappusof 2 stiff bristle

(I) Prickly lettuce, Wild lettuce, China lettuceCommon Sunflower

Lactuca serriola L.Habit: Herb, biennial or

winter annual, large taproot, with milky juice

Habitat: Native of Europe, now naturalized throughout North America

Weed that invades disturbed soil, irrigated crops, and orchards, as well as gardens, roadsides, and yards

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Prickly lettuceLeaves: alternate,

twisted at the base to lie in a vertical plane, prickly on the lower side of midrib, clasping the stem with two angled earlike lobes

Flowers: Flower heads are yellow, composed of 5 to 30 ray flowers only

Fruits/seeds: Bristly Achenes for dispersal

(N) Black Head, Western Coneflower Rudbeckia occidentalis Nutt.

• Habit: – Native, short lived perennial,

or biennial; stems 30 to 100cm tall, from rhizomes

• Habitat:– Grows in moist, open or

wooded sites in foothills and montane zones

• Uses:– Used mostly for medicine.

Plants are said to increase urination and to have a mild stimulating effect on the heart. Some people have an allergicreaction to this plant.

(N) Black Head, Western Coneflower Rudbeckia occidentalis Nutt.

• Leaves alternate, lance shaped to elliptic, long-stalked

• Flowerheads Rayless, black to purplish, cone-shaped or cylindrical clusters of disc flowers

• Fruits/seeds Hairless, 4-sided achenes; pappus absent

(N) Canada goldenrod, Meadow goldenrod Solidago canadensis L.

• Habit: Perennial herb, solitary stems, leafy, erect, 30 – 120 cm tall, from spreading rhizomes

• Habitat: Moist, open or partly shaded sites; plains to montane

Canada goldenrodLeaves: Alternate,

crowded, lance-shaped, usually sharply toothed, stalkless

Flowerheads: Yellow ray florets about 10-17, with disc floretsusually more numerous than rays; many flowerheadsin dense, showy pyramidal clusters from July to October

Fruit/seeds Short-hairy achenes; pappus of white, hair-like bristles

(I) Common Tansy, Garden Tansy Tanacetum vulgare L.

Habit: To 2m tall, erect, from fibrous roots and rhizomes, herbaceous, fragrant, glabrous

Habitat: Native to Eurasia;Meadows, fence rows, prairie margins, fields, roadsides, railroads, cultivated.

Other info: Tansy has been used in the past as a remedy for many ailments. The plant is quite toxic and causes abortions and even death in most mammals.

Grown as an ornamental, Many hybrids and cultivars exist

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(I) Common tansy, garden tansy Tanacetum vulgare L.

Leaves: Alternate, petiolate below to sessile above, deeply pinnatelydivided, with serrate lobes; fragrant

Flowers: Rayless; disk flowers yellow, numerous, crowded into buttonlike terminal heads

I Common DandelionTaraxacum officinale Weber

Habit: Perennial, cool season herb; erect stems contain a bitter, milky-white juice. from a fleshy, deep taproot; flowers April to October

Habitat: It most commonly occurs in disturbed areas; Dandelion can reproduce vegetatively by sprouting from the caudex after disturbance

Uses: Eaten in salads, cooked vegetable, roots can be cooked or used in salads, and flower petals produce a highly esteemed, delicately flavored, pale yellow wine

(I) Common DandelionTaraxacum officinale Weber

Leaves: Basal, deeply lobed, 2 to 16 inches long, and forming a rosette. Surfaces of leaves can be lightly pubescent

Flowers: All ray flowers (ligulate); Yellow; at the tip of a leafless stem. It becomes a ball of white silky bristles at maturity

Fruits/Seeds: Seeds of dandelion are topped by a parachute of bristles that aid in dispersal

(I) Yellow Salsify, GoatsbeardTragopogon dubius Scop.

Habit: Biennial (sometimes annual) herb, milky sap, stems leafy, from taproot

Habitat: Fairly dry, disturbed sites; plains to montane; introduced from Europe; a common, widely-dispersed weed

(I) Yellow salsify, goatsbeardTragopogon dubius Scop.

Leaves: alternate, grass-like, linear, gradually tapered from base to pointed tip, clasping stem

Flowerhead: solitary; lemon-yellow with ray florets only; involucral bracts about 12 in 1 row, slender, gradually tapered, extending past ray florets; from May to July

Fruits/seeds: Slender minutely spinedachenes, forming large, ball-like heads with fuzzy pappus

(N) Common Cocklebur Xanthium strumarium L.

Habit: erect annual herb, stem 2 to 4 ft tall; with large, rough leaves and burlike fruits

Habitat: Native to NA, Common in cultivated fields, abandoned land, run-down pastures, road ditches, and waste areas.

The burs are irritating to humans and animals; both seeds and seedling contain a substance toxic to livestock

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(N) Common cocklebur Xanthium strumarium L.

Leaves: Alternate, triangular or heart-shaped, rough on both sides and long petioled

Flowers/inflorescence:Flower heads discoid, small, in axils of upper leaves; male and female flowers in separate heads; Female heads 2-flowered, completely enclose by fused, spiny involucral bracts

Fruits/seeds: Fruits are 1-inch long, woody, with hooked prickles and two curved spines at the tip and two seeds that germinate in successive years; pappus none

SEDGE FAMILYCyperaceae

• Grasslike• Species are usually

perennial, often rhizomatous herbs; partial to wet places

• Solid, triangular stems(usually)

• Leaves 3-ranked with closed sheath

• Small, wind-pollinated flowers in dense clusters called spikelets; lack petals/sepals

(N) Creeping spikerush; spikerushEleocharis spp.

Habit: “Leafless”, slender, perennial sedge; round stems; from rhizomes

Habitat: Wet sites, often in standing water; Plains to montane Yukon and NWT to New Mexico

(N) Creeping spikerush; spikerushEleocharis spp.

Leaves: Reduced to bladeless sheaths at the stem base

Flowers: Spirally arranged in single, terminal, brown spikes; Florets with 3 anthers and 2 stigmas in axils of scales

Fruit: Yellowish brown achenes

(N) Hardstemmed bulrush; Tule Scirpus acutus Muhl.

Habit: Aquatic perennial; Stems erect, round and spongy; bluegreen color; spreading from rhizomes

Habitat: Marshes, muddy shores, shallow water (fresh and brackish) at low to mid elevations

Uses: The Ohlone Indians bound bundles of tules together to make boats that were used in hunting and fishing along San Francisco Bay. Air chambers in the hollow stems kept the boats afloat. Long cylindrical stems from 5 to 8 feet tall leaves have slender, v-shaped blades

(N) Hardstemmed bulrush; Tule Scirpus acutus Muhl.

Leaves: Most reduced to bladeless sheaths

Flowers: occur in dense spikeletsborne at the top of the stem; resemble orange brown scales

Fruits: egg shaped achenes