309. Coreocarpus Bentham, Bot. Voy. Sulphur. 28, plate 16. 1844.
[Greek koreos, bug, and karpos, fruit, alluding to pectinately winged cypselae of original species]
John L. Strother
Perennials [subshrubs], 10–70(–120+) cm. Stems 1, erect [sprawling], branched throughout. Leaves cauline; opposite; obscurely petiolate; blades 1–2-pinnately or -pedately lobed (ultimate lobes narrowly lanceolate to filiform [lanceolate to ovate]), ultimate margins entire, faces usually glabrous, rarely hairy [pilose]. Heads usually radiate, sometimes discoid, in open, corymbiform to paniculiform arrays [borne singly]. Calyculi of (0–)1–3+ linear to subulate, herbaceous bractlets. Involucres ± campanulate to turbinate, 3–5+ mm diam. Phyllaries persistent, 5–8[–13+] in ± 2 series, distinct, (green to stramineous with red-brown to purplish nerves) ovate to oblong, ± equal, membranous, margins scarious. Receptacles flat to convex, paleate; paleae falling, (stramineous with red-brown striae) lance-linear to lanceolate, membranous to scarious [adnate to cypselae]. Ray florets 0, or [1–]5–8, pistillate, fertile [styliferous and sterile or neuter]; corollas [orange] yellow to pale yellow or white [purplish]. Disc florets [5–]12–25[–30+], bisexual, fertile; corollas yellow with red-brown nerves, tubes shorter than narrowly funnelform throats, lobes 5, ± deltate. Cypselae (blackish or red-brown to stramineous) obcompressed, ± oblanceolate, faces smooth or ± granular-papillate, margins ± winged, wings ± corky, ± pectinate [entire]; pappi 0, or persistent, of 1–2 retrorsely [antrorsely] barbellate awns. x = 12.
Species ca. 9 (1 in the flora): sw United States, nw Mexico.
SELECTED REFERENCE
Smith, E. B. 1989. A biosystematic study and revision of the genus Coreocarpus (Compositae). Syst. Bot. 14: 448–472.
