238. Lepidospartum (A. Gray) A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts. 19: 50. 1883.
[Greek lepidos, scale, and sparton, Spanish broom (the plant)]
John L. Strother
Tetradymia de Candolle sect. Lepidosparton A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 207. 1874
Shrubs (treelets), 20–250 cm (juvenile stems and foliage tomentose, later stems and leaves glabrous or pannose to tomentose, sometimes glabrescent). Stems 1–5+, erect (much branched). Leaves cauline; alternate; petiolate or sessile; blades palmately (sometimes obscurely) nerved; the juvenile obovate to spatulate, on flowering stems filiform to acerose or scale-like, margins entire, faces glabrous or tomentose to glabrescent. Heads discoid, in ± paniculiform arrays (or clusters of 3–5). Calyculi 0 (or bractlets intergrading with phyllaries). Involucres obconic to cylindric, 4–8 mm diam. Phyllaries persistent, 8–13 or 12–23+ in 2–4+ series, erect, distinct, mostly ovate to lanceolate, unequal (outer shorter), margins sometimes scarious. Receptacles flat, smooth or foveolate (glabrous or arachnose), epaleate. Ray florets 0. Disc florets 3–17+, bisexual, fertile; corollas pale to bright yellow, tubes longer than campanulate to funnelform throats, lobes 5, recurved, lance-linear; style branches: stigmatic areas ± continuous, apices rounded-truncate. Cypselae ± fusiform, 5–15-nerved, glabrous or ± pilose; pappi persistent, of ca. 150, white or tawny, barbellulate bristles (in 3–4 series). x = 30.
Species 3 (3 in the flora): sw United States, nw Mexico.
