387. Plateilema (A. Gray) Cockerell, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club. 31: 462. 1904.
[Greek platys, broad, and eilema, envelope, alluding to broad phyllaries]
John L. Strother
Actinella Nuttall sect. Plateilema A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 19: 31. 1883
Perennials, mostly 5–8+ cm. Stems erect, branched mostly from bases. Leaves mostly basal; alternate; obscurely petiolate; blades obovate to oblanceolate, pinnately toothed or lobed (lobes deltate to obovate), ultimate margins toothed or entire, faces sparsely hispid (hairs white, coarse) or glabrate, not gland-dotted. Heads radiate, borne singly. Involucres broadly turbinate, mostly 7–9 mm diam. Phyllaries persistent, 8–12 in 2 series (spreading or erect in fruit, basally connate, gray-green, ± ovate, sparsely hispid). Receptacles convex, ± pitted, epaleate. Ray florets 8–12, pistillate, fertile; corollas yellowish with 4–5+ purplish nerves (apices 3–4-lobed). Disc florets 40–60+, bisexual, fertile; corollas yellowish to purplish, tubes much shorter than ampliate, cylindric throats, lobes 5, ± deltate (± equal, usually hispidulous and/or glandular-puberulent). Cypselae obpyramidal, ± 4–5-angled (lengths 1.5–3 times widths), ± hispid on angles; pappi persistent, of 4–5 brownish, moderately lacerate to erose or truncate scales.
Species 1: Texas, n Mexico.
SELECTED REFERENCE
Turner, B. L. 2000. Plateilema (Asteraceae: Helenieae) a new generic report for the United States. Sida 19: 185–187.
