2.
Pityopsis falcata
(Pursh) Nuttall, Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 318. 1840.
Inula falcata
Pursh, Fl. Amer. Sept. 2: 532. 1813;
Chrysopsis falcata
(Pursh) Elliott;
Heterotheca falcata
(Pursh) V. L. Harms;
Inula mariana
Linnaeus var. ×
falcata
(Pursh) Nuttall
Perennials,
(10—)20—30(—40) cm; rhizomes 0.5—5 cm.
Stems
erect, sometimes reddish brown, sometimes branched distally, striate, sparsely to densely long-sericeous.
Leaves:
basal usually withering by flowering, shorter than cauline; cauline spreading to ascending, sessile, blades linear, falcate, often conduplicate, apices acuminate; proximal 50—90 × 2—7 mm, glabrate to sparsely sericeous; distal somewhat smaller, glabrate except for margins.
Heads
(2—)4—10(—25) in corymbiform arrays.
Peduncles
sparsely bracteolate, 1—4 cm, white-villous.
Involucres
turbino-campanulate, 5—8 mm.
Phyllaries
in 5—6 series, apices with tufts of hairs, faces sparsely strigose.
Ray florets
9—15; corolla laminae 5—8 mm.
Disc florets
30—60; corollas 4.5—6 mm, sparsely pilose near base of limbs, lobes 0.5 mm, sparsely pilose.
Cypselae
fusiform, 3—4 mm, ribbed, faces strigose;
pappi:
outer of linear setiform scales 0.5—1 mm, inner of 30—40 bristles 4—6 mm.
2
n
= 18.
Flowering summer—fall. Open areas on sandy glacial deposits, often in pine barrens (
Pinus rigida
); 10—100 m; Conn., Fla., Mass., N.J., N.Y., R.I.
Pityopsis falcata
grows on deposits left along the front of the Wisconsin Glaciation. It can be locally abundant in open sandy soils. It was collected once along railroad tracks west of Toronto, Ontario, and also along a beach in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1955.
