Meager pentachaeta

Aphantochaeta exilis A. Gray in War Department [U.S.], Pacif. Railr. Rep. 4(5): 100, plate 11[as 10]A. 1857; Chaetopappa exilis (A. Gray) D. D. Keck

Plants 2–6 cm. Stems simple or branched, rarely with many branches from bases. Leaf blades linear to filiform, 12–32 × 0.5–1 mm. Involucres turbinate to campanulate. Phyllaries in 2(–3) series, elliptic to obovate, glabrous or sparsely and minutely glandular. Ray (or pistillate) florets 0 or 1–5; corollas white, laminae 0.8–2 mm, or 0, or apiculum 0.1–0.5(–1) mm. Disc florets 3–6(–15); corollas yellowish to reddish, club-shaped, widened through limbs, abruptly contracted at lobes, lobes 5, (lobes and sometimes distalmost portion of limbs) yellow or purplish red at maturity, style branches (0.7–)1–2 mm, stigmatic portions 0.4–0.5 mm. P appi 0, or of (3–)5 bristles, not dilated at bases. 2n = 18.

Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora): California.

Plants of Pentachaeta exilis with greatly reduced or completely absent pappi apparently are scattered over the range of the species. This feature is relatively constant within a population.