Flora of North America species comparison

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Pectis ×floridana

chinchweed
Habit Annuals, 5–30 cm; herbage spicy-scented.
Stems

decumbent to erect, glabrous.
Leaves

linear, 15–35 × 1–2 mm, margins with 3–5 pairs of setae, faces glabrous (abaxial densely dotted with round oil-glands ca. 0.2 mm).
Peduncles

5–25 mm.
Involucres

cylindric to narrowly fusiform.
Ray florets

5;

corollas 3.5–4.2 mm.
Disc florets

4–6;

corollas 2.2–2.5 mm (2-lipped).
Phyllaries

coherent (falling together), linear or linear-oblanceolate, 5–7 × 1–2 mm (dotted with scattered, oval oil-glands 0.2–0.3 mm).
Heads

borne singly or in condensed, cymiform arrays.
Cypselae

3–3.5 mm (pericarps darkening, not swelling, ovules abortive), strigillose to short-pilose;

pappi of 2 (ray) or 5 (disc) slender, antrorsely scabrid, aristate scales 2–2.5 mm, sometimes with additional shorter scales or bristles.
2n

= 3x = 36.

Pectis ×floridana
Phenology Flowering Sep–Dec.
Habitat Roadsides
Elevation 0–50 m (0–200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
FL
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Pectis ×floridana is a triploid hybrid between P. glaucescens (2n = 48) and P. prostrata (2n = 24). The hybrids have been observed where the parental taxa grow together in roadside habitats in southern Florida. At the type locality, the hybrids were nearly as common as the parentals. Meiosis in the hybrids is very irregular; resulting pollen grains are malformed and variable in size and apparently all sterile. No fruits have been observed. Regeneration of the hybrids from season to season apparently requires new hybridization events.

The hybrids superficially resemble Pectis linearifolia from which they differ in having spicy-scented rather than lemon-scented herbage, longer peduncles, and strongly carinate phyllaries that cohere at the bases and fall together as a group.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 21, p. 226.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Heliantheae > subtribe Pectidinae > Pectis
Sibling taxa
P. angustifolia, P. cylindrica, P. filipes, P. glaucescens, P. humifusa, P. imberbis, P. linearifolia, P. linifolia, P. longipes, P. papposa, P. prostrata, P. rusbyi
Name authority D. J. Keil: Sida 11: 389. (1986)
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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