159. Cuniculotinus Urbatsch, R. P. Roberts & Neubig, Sida. 21: 1618. 2005.
Rock goldenrod [Latin cuniculus, rabbit, and tinus, shrub, thus rabbit brush, commonly used name for species of Chrysothamnus in the broad sense]
Lowell E. Urbatsch, Roland P. Roberts, Kurt M. Neubig
Subshrubs, 20–60 cm (caudices branched, woody, to 10 cm). Stems erect (green with tan ridges decurrent apparently from bases of major leaf nerves), simple, glabrous. Leaves basal (± persistent) and cauline; alternate; sessile; blades (ascending) with midnerves plus 2–4 collateral nerves prominent, linear to lanceolate or oblong-oblanceolate (coriaceous), margins entire (sometimes ciliate with conic trichomes), faces glabrous or sparsely hairy , often gland-dotted (cauline reduced distally, becoming bractlike in arrays). Heads discoid, borne singly or in corymbiform arrays (at branch tips, branches racemiform). Involucres turbinate to cylindric, (11–17.5 ×) 3–4 mm. Phyllaries 12–18 in 4–6 series, appressed to slightly spreading (pale yellow, sometimes green to brownish distally), midnerves plus 2 collaterals evident proximally (flat), ovate or oblong to obovate, unequal, mostly chartaceous, margins scarious, (apices truncate, mucronate to caudate) faces glabrous. Receptacles flat, finely pitted, epaleate. Disc florets 4–7, bisexual, fertile; corollas yellow, tubes shorter than or about equal to tubular (slightly dilated distally) throats, lobes 5, erect, triangular; style-branch appendages linear. Cypselae (tan brownish) oblong, subterete, 5–6-ribbed, glabrous; pappi persistent, of ± 80 silvery or tan, barbellate, apically attenuate bristles in 1 series. x = 9.
Species 1: w United States.
The single species of Cuniculotinus was originally described under Chrysothamnus and subsequently placed in Petradoria (L. C. Anderson 1963) based largely on its woody caudices, herbaceous stems, persistent basal leaves, prominently nerved, coriaceous leaf blades, and anatomical features. Later, it was moved back to Chrysothamnus and assigned to sect. Gramini L. C. Anderson along with C. molestus. Phylogenetic analyses based on ITS sequence data showed it to be part of a basal grade below Sericocarpus, very distant from Chrysothamnus and Petradoria (R. P. Roberts and L. E. Urbatsch 2003).
