9.
Eriophyllum lanatum
(Pursh) J. Forbes, Hort. Woburn. 183. 1833.
Common woolly sunflower
Actinella lanata
Pursh, Fl. Amer. Sept. 2: 560. 1813
Perennials or subshrubs,
10—100 cm (sometimes flowering first year).
Stems
erect to decumbent (usually woolly).
Leaves
(proximal usually alternate): blades mostly lanceolate to oblanceolate, 1—8 cm, often 1—2(—3)-pinnately lobed, ultimate margins toothed, serrate, or entire, revolute or plane, faces hairy, often woolly (more densely abaxially, sometimes glabrate adaxially; distal leaves reduced in size and lobing).
Heads
borne singly or (2—5+) in corymbiform arrays.
Peduncles
mostly 3—30 cm.
Involucres
campanulate to hemispheric, 6—15 mm diam.
Phyllaries
5—13(—15), distinct or connate at bases (lanceolate to ovate, carinate or plane).
Ray florets
0 or 5—13(—15); laminae golden yellow to yellow, 6—20 (× 2—7) mm.
Disc florets
20—300; corollas 2.5—5 mm (tubes usually glandular or glandular-hairy, glabrous in var.
hallii
).
Cypselae
2—5 mm;
pappi
usually of 6—12 ovate or cuneate to lanceolate or lance-linear (often unequal), erose or lacerate scales 0.3—2 mm, sometimes coroniform, rarely 0.
Varieties 10 (10 in the flora): w North America, Mexico (probably extinct).
Eriophyllum lanatum
is a polyploid complex of intergrading regional facies treated here as varieties. Artificial hybridization studies show that strong barriers to interbreeding exist among the varieties at the diploid level (J. S. Mooring 2001). In nature, morphologically intermediate polyploid populations often occur in regions where the ranges of the varieties approach one another. Edaphic factors and light intensity also make identification more difficult by strongly influencing leaf morphology and sizes of structures. For example, cultivated individuals of var.
achilleoides
may have laciniately toothed rather than pinnatifid leaves. Rarely, plants of different varieties maintain their identity while growing side by side. In some instances, one is diploid and the other tetraploid; in others both are diploid. Varieties
arachnoideum, croceum, grandiflorum
, and
obovatum
apparently form natural hybrids with
E. confertiflorum
var.
confertiflorum
; past hybridizations may have resulted in the origin of
E. latilobum
and
E. jepsonii
(L. Constance 1937; P. A. Munz 1959; Mooring 1994) and
E. confertiflorum
var.
tanacetiflorum
(Mooring 1994).
Our treatment of
Eriophyllum lanatum
closely follows that of L. Constance (1937), which was done without benefit of cytogeographic studies. The key is to modal populations of the varieties, usually based on living plants.
Some varieties have been introduced into cultivation as ornamentals.
SELECTED REFERENCES
Mooring, J. S. 1975. A cytogeographic study of
Eriophyllum
lanatum
(Compositae, Helenieae). Amer. J. Bot. 62: 1027—1037. Mooring, J. S. 2001. Barriers to interbreeding in the
Eriophyllum lanatum
(Asteraceae, Helenieae) species complex. Amer. J. Bot. 88: 285—312.
