COMPOSITE FAMILY 



COMPOSITAE 



TUBEROUS INDIAN 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 

 feet high from a thick 

 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 ^ 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. 



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