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Launaea pumila

Interesting Facts

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Description

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Family Compositae

The largest family of flowering plants , the Compositae (Asteraceae), comprising about 1,100 genera and more than 20,000 species and characterized by many small flowers arranged in a head looking like a single flower and subtended by an involucre of bracts. A head may consist of both ray flowers and disk flowers, as in the sunflower, of disk flowers only, as in the burdock, or of ray flowers only, as in the dandelion.

Tribe Lactuceae

The Lactuceae are a tribe of closely related genera of the sunflower family that are easily recognized because the flowering heads are composed of wholly of ligulate florets that are usually 5-lobed. Another very distinguishing feature is the milky sap . Although not apparent without magnification, the pollen is distinctive in that the spines are more or less restricted to discrete ridges or flanges on the surface of the grain. In other members of the family the spines are distributed more or less evenly over the surface of the pollen grain . The pappus usually consists of scales or stiff hairs . -- Gerald D. Carr.

Genus Launaea

Annuals or biennials [perennials , shrubs , sometimes spiny ], [5-]30-150 cm; usually taprooted [stoloniferous ]. Stems erect [prostrate ], distally branched, glabrous [± hairy .. Leaves basal or basal and proximally cauline; petiolate or sessile; blades ± oblanceolate , often pinnately lobed , ultimate margins usually dentate (teeth usually ± prickly; faces glabrous [± hairy]). Heads in spiciform or racemiform to paniculiform arrays [borne singly]. Peduncles not inflated distally, bracteolate . Calyculi 0 (or bractlets intergrading with phyllaries). Involucres cylindric [urceolate , campanulate , or obconic], 3-5[-16] mm diam. Phyllaries (persistent , reflexed in fruit) 18-25 in 3-5+ series, unequal, ovate to lanceolate (outer) or linear (inner), margins scarious , apices obtuse to acuminate (faces glabrous [± hairy]). Receptacles flat to convex , epaleate. Florets 25-30; corollas yellow to ochroleucous [cyanic]. Cypselae blackish to grayish, cylindric to fusiform or ± prismatic , sometimes ± compressed , beaks 0 (or lengths 0.05-0.1 times bodies), 4-5-ribbed (or -grooved), ribs usually muricate , faces glabrous; pappi persistent or tardily falling [readily falling], double [simple ], of 60-100+, outer, white, often ± coiled or crisped (frizzy) hairs or bristles in 2-3 series plus 80-120+, white, coarser, barbellulate to smooth bristles in 2-3+ series, all distinct or some basally connate . x = 9.

Species ca. 50: introduced ; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; South America; introduced also in Europe, n Africa, Atlantic Islands, sw, c Asia.[1]

Habitat

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 991 meters (0 to 3,251 feet).[2]

Taxonomy

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Synonyms

Launaea Fragilis Pumila • Scorzonera Pumila

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Comment: Data Providers: African Flowering Plants Database , IPNI, Tropicos, Euro+Med. GCC LSID: urn :lsid:compositae.org:names:D69067E7-E1B2-47A3-A85F-58BA0866166A

Last scrutiny: 01-Nov-09

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Launaea

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 1 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

L. intybacea (Achicoria Azul)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal February 15, 2008:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. R. David Whetstone, Kristin R. Brodeur "Launaea". in Flora of North America Vol. 19, 20 and 21 Page 214, 215, 216, 217, 219, 272. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. Mean = 408.090 meters (1,338.878 feet), Standard Deviation = 752.360 based on 22 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
Last Revised: 7/23/2012