COMPOSITE FAMILY 



COMPOSITAE 



LEAFCUP 



Polymnia canadensis L. 



The Leafcup is quite common in rich woods and moist shaded 

 ravines from Vermont to Minnesota and south to North CaroHna 

 and Arkansas. It has a very strong and rather unpleasant odor. 



The blooming season is 

 June to September. 



The stem is hairy and 

 sticky, 2-5 feet high and 

 usually branched. The 

 thin, deeply angulate- 

 lobed leaves, 4-10 inches 

 long, are mostly opposite 

 but with some alternate. 



The heads, either ses- 

 sile or short peduncled, 

 are few in terminal clus- 

 ters. The more or less 

 hemispherical involucre 

 is composed usually ot 5 

 rather large outer bracts 

 and a greater number of 

 small and thin inner 

 ones. The receptacle is 

 flat and chaffy with thin 

 membranous bracts. 

 Five white or yellowish 

 ray flowers, which are pistillate and produce thick 3-angled and 

 3-ribbed akenes, occur, but they are very variable. Usually they 

 are very small, shorter than the involucre and wedge shaped. 

 Sometimes they are nearly one-half inch long and 3-lobed; in 

 other cases they are lacking. The disk flowers are light yellow 

 and perfect, but do not produce akenes. There is no pappus. 



The Yellow Leafcup, Polymnia uvedalia L., is a very large plant, 

 up to 10 feet high, found only in rich low woods of southern counties. 

 The variably lobed leaves may often be i foot long and equally wide, 

 and are generally clasping. The panicled inflorescence contains many 

 heads 1-3 inches in diameter, having 10-15 bright yellow rays 3- 

 toothed at the end, and numerous yellowish brown disk flowers 

 which are tubular and perfect. 



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