Flora of North America species comparison

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Diaperia prolifera

big-head rabbit-tobacco, bighead pygmycudweed
Habit Plants grayish green to silvery, 3–15 cm, sericeous to lanuginose.
Stems

mostly 2–10;

branches proximal and distal (distal opposite or, sometimes, appearing alternate when unequal), rarely none.
Leaves

largest 7–15 × 2–4 mm;

capitular leaves subtending glomerules, also visible between and surpassing heads.
Receptacles

broadly or narrowly conic, 0.4–0.6 mm or ± 0.9–1.1 mm, heights 0.5–0.7 or 2–2.4 times diams.
Bisexual florets

0.
Heads

in strictly dichasiform or pseudo-polytomous arrays (sometimes appearing monochasiiform), cylindric to ± ellipsoid, 3.5–4.5 mm, heights 2–3 times diams.
Cypselae

± angular, obcompressed, mostly 0.9–1.2 mm.
Pistillate

paleae imbricate, longest 2.5–4 mm.
Staminate

paleae ± 3, apices erect to somewhat spreading, ± plane.
Functionally

staminate florets 2–4;

ovaries partly developed, 0.4–0.6 mm;

corollas hidden in heads, actinomorphic, 1.4–2 mm, glabrous, lobes equal.

Diaperia prolifera
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; CO; KS; LA; MO; MS; MT; NE; NM; OK; SD; TX; WY
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[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

Intermediates between the two varieties of Diaperia prolifera occur where their ranges meet in central Texas and central Oklahoma. The strictly dichasiform or pseudo-polytomous branching pattern of D. prolifera is distinctive and diagnostic within the genus. Specimens of D. prolifera from introductions around a wool mill in South Carolina (G. L. Nesom 2004c, as Evax prolifera) are as yet undetermined to variety and are not included in the distributions below.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Plants grayish to greenish, loosely lanuginose; heads 4–40+ in largest glomerules; receptacle heights mostly 0.5–0.7 times diams.; capitular leaves usually ± spreading, scarcely involucral, not or scarcely carinate, pliant to somewhat rigid; distal branches mostly spreading to ascending; longest pistillate paleae 3.3–4 mm
var. prolifera
1. Plants silvery white, tightly sericeous; heads borne singly, or 2–3 in largest glomerules; receptacle heights mostly 2–2.4 times diams.; capitular leaves erect, involucral, proximally carinate, becoming indurate; distal branches strictly ascending to erect; longest pistillate paleae 2.5–3.2 mm
var. barnebyi
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 462.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Gnaphalieae > Diaperia
Sibling taxa
D. candida, D. verna
Subordinate taxa
D. prolifera var. barnebyi, D. prolifera var. prolifera
Synonyms Evax prolifera
Name authority (Nuttall ex de Candolle) Nuttall: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 338. (1840)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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