Plowman’s-wort

Erigeron camphoratus Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 864. 1753

Annuals or perennials, 50–200+ cm; fibrous-rooted. Stems minutely puberulent and sessile-glandular, usually also closely arachnose (hairs ap-pressed). Leaves petiolate (peti-oles 10–20 mm); blades elliptic to oblong-elliptic, 6–15 × 3–7 cm, margins dentate-serrate or entire, faces glandular-puberulent or puberulent and sessile-glandular. Heads in paniculiform arrays (of rounded-convex, corymbiform clusters terminating branches from distal nodes, arrays usually resulting from axillary, strongly ascending, bracteate branches, the central axis longest and first to flower and, rarely, the only component of an array). Involucres campanulate, 4–6 × 3–4 mm. Phyllaries usually cream, sometimes purplish, minutely sessile-glandular (the outer also sparsely puberulent), sometimes glabrate. Corollas rose purplish. Pappi persistent, bristles distinct.

Flowering Aug–Oct (year-round in south). Flatwoods, bottomland channels, other wet or moist freshwater habitats; 0–30 m; Ala., Ark., Del., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Kans., Ky., La., Md., Miss., Mo., N.J., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Pa., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va., W.Va.

Pluchea camphorata is similar to P. odorata and rarely may hybridize with it. In P. camphorata, the phyllaries of the inner 2–3 series are thin and nearly translucent, lanceolate, and more than twice as long as deltate-ovate phyllaries of the outer series. The inner may be glandular but they are otherwise glabrous, prominently different in vestiture from the outer. The phyllaries of P. odorata are more strongly graduated and the inner are glandular and also clearly puberulent as well.