Simsia grandiflora

• Interesting Facts
• Description
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Interesting Facts

Description

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 Heliantheae

The Heliantheae are a tribe of closely related genera of the sunflower family that can be readily recognized due to the association of a receptacular bract or chaff scale with each disk floret in the head . The heads usually include bisexual , actinomorphic disk florets with tubular corollas that have 4 or 5 distal lobes and also peripheral zygomorphic female or sometimes sterile florets with strap-shaped corollas that have 3 or fewer distal teeth. However, the ray flowers are sometimes absent and the heads are then discoid , containing only bisexual florets with tubular corollas. The pappus is absent or more commonly ranges from scales to stiff bristles . -- Gerald Carr.

Genus Simsia

Annuals , perennials , or subshrubs [shrubs ], 20-400 cm. Stems erect or ascending [decumbent ], sparingly to freely branched. Leaves cauline; opposite (proximal ) or alternate [whorled ]; petiolate (petioles often ± winged , often with expanded bases , those bases sometimes fused to form nodal "discs") [sessile]; blades 3-nerved from bases, mostly deltate to ovate [linear ], sometimes 3- [5-]lobed[pinnatifid ], bases cordate to cuneate, ultimate margins entire or toothed , faces hirsute , hispid , pilose , puberulent , scabrous , or scabro-hispid [sericeous ], often gland-dotted or ± stipitate-glandular to glandular-puberulent. Heads radiate [discoid ], borne singly or in 2s or 3s, or in tight to loose , corymbiform [paniculiform ] arrays. Involucres campanulate [ovoid-campanulate to urceolate ], 5-16[-22] mm diam. Phyllaries persistent , [11-]13-43[-66] in 2-4 series (tightly appressed to broadly reflexed , unequal to subequal ). Receptacles low-convex, paleate (paleae conduplicate , ± enclosing cypselae). Ray florets [0-]5-21[-45], styliferous and sterile ; corollas orange-yellow [lemon-yellow, pink, purple, or white]. Disc florets [12-]13-154[-172], bisexual , fertile ; corollas concolorous with rays (usually turning purple apically), tubes (often glandular-hairy) shorter than throats , lobes 5, ± triangular (anthers black, yellow, or yellow proximally and bronze or purple distally; style branches relatively slender, apices sometimes attenuate). Cypselae flattened, thin-margined [thickened, biconvex ] (shoulders minute to conspicuous , faces glabrous or hairy ) ; pappi 0, or fragile or readily falling, of 2 ± subulate scales [plus 4-12 shorter scales]. x = 17.

Species 20: sw United States, Mexico, West Indies (Jamaica), Central America, South America.[1]

Taxonomy

Synonyms

Encelia grandiflora (Benth.) Hemsl. • Simsia Foetida Grandiflora • Simsia Grandiflora

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Comment: Data Providers: Govaerts World Compositae Checklist A-G, IPNI. GCC LSID: urn :lsid:compositae.org:names:552013B8-E411-4A2F-B81F-6C5187D5B925

Last scrutiny: 19-Aug-09

Similar Species

Members of the genus Simsia

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 2 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

S. calva (Awnless Bushsunflower) · S. lagasceiformis (Annual Bush Sunflower)

More Info

• Search for Pictures: images.google.com
• Search for Scholarly Articles: Google Scholar
• Search using Scientific Name and Vernacular Names: All the Web | AltaVista Canada | AltaVista | Excite | Google | HotBot | Lycos
• Search using Specialized Databases: GenBank | Medline | Scirus | CISTI/CAL | Agricola Periodicals | Agricola Books

Further Reading

• Biologia centrali-americana; or, Contributions to the knowledge of the fauna and flora of Mexico and Central America. London, Pub. for the editors by R. H. Porter and Dulau & co., 1879-88. url .
• Britton, N. L. (ed.). North American flora. [New York]New York Botanical Garden. url p. 801, p. 892.
• Contributions from the United States National Herbarium 27 1928 Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1890- url p. 381.
• Flora of Guatemala / Dorothy L. Nash, Louis O. Williams; genera contributed by Kenneth M. Becker. .. [et al.]. 24 1976 Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, 1976. url p. 314.
• Phytologia memoirs. Plainfield, N.J.: H.N. Moldenke and A.L. Moldenke, 1980- url p. 298.
• Phytologia. Bronx Park, New York, H.A. Gleason and H.N. Moldenke, url p. 362, p. 369, p. 371, p. 373.
• Spooner, D. M. 1990. Systematics of Simsia (Compositae-Heliantheae). Syst. Bot. Monogr. 30: 1-90.

Notes

Contributors

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 15, 2012.

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal February 17, 2008:

• Comisión nacional para el conocimiento y uso de la biodiversidad, Herbario del Instituto de Ecología, A.C., México
• Missouri Botanical Garden, Missouri Botanical Garden

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 9266748
• Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: Ast-7608
• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:249234-1
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 2096915

Footnotes

1. David M. Spooner "Simsia". in Flora of North America Vol. 21 Page 135, 140. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.