COMPOSITE FAMILY COMPOSITAE 
TUBEROUS !NDIAN PLANTAIN 
Cacalia tuberosa Nutt. 
The Tuberous Indian Plantain grows on wet prairies and in 
marshes from Ohio to Minnesota and south to Alabama and 
Texas. It is often very abundant and may cover acres of grass- — 
land from June to Au- 
gust with a white blan- 
ket of flowers. 
The plant is smooth 
and green throughout. 
The stem is angled and 
grooved and grows 2-6 
tuberous root. The leaves 
are thick and strongly 
5-9 veined. The lower 
are 4-8 inches long, 1-3 
inches wide, and have 
long petioles, but the 
upper leaves are much 
smaller and have short- 
margined petioles. 
Most of the numer- 
ous heads have 5 flow- 
ers, which are tubular 
and whitish. The involu- 
cre is one-quarter of an 
inch high or slightly more and its linear-oblong bracts are blunt 
and with a thin dried margin. The receptacle is flat and not 
chaffy but it has a fleshy projection from the center. The akenes 
are oblong and smooth and the pappus is composed of an abun- 
dance of white bristles. 
The Pale Indian Plantain, Cacalia atriplicifolia L., grows in 
woods from New Jersey to Indiana and Minnesota, south to Florida, 
Tennessee and Kansas. It blooms from July to September. The 
stem is round, smooth and covered with a waxy bloom. The leaves 
are thin, angular lobed and palmately veined, with the whitish waxy 
material on the lower surface. The lower leaves are somewhat triangu- 
lar, kidney form or slightly heart shaped, and the upper are more or 
less wedge shaped and toothed. The heads are numerous and similar 
to those of the tuberous species. 
380 
feet high from a thick © 
