SU N FLOW ICR FA M I L Y . 



541 



58. WYETHIA Nutt. 

 Perennial herbs. Root very stout, crowned by a short caudex 

 which bears a tuft of ample leaves and several simple 1-headed stems. 

 Leaves mostly entire, the cauline mostly few and smaller. Heads 

 large. Involucre hemispherical or campanulate, its bracts in 2 or 3 

 series, the outermost often foliaceous and much enlarged, the inner- 

 most small and bract-like. Receptacle flat or nearly so, its bracts 

 rigid, linear or lanceolate, either flattish or partially folded around 

 the achenes. Flowers yellow, both ray and disk fertile, the latter 

 perfect; ligule of ray-corollas elongated and very conspicuous. 

 Branches of the style in perfect flowers produced into subulate- 

 filiform hispid appendages. Achene prismatic-quadrangular. Pappus 

 firm and persistent, consisting of a crown of unequal scales, or with 

 rigid awns at the angles. (In honor of Capt. Nath. J. Wyeth, with 

 whom Nuttall crossed the continent in the early part of the 19th 

 Century. 



Leaves elongated-lanceolate, the cauline sessile; outer bracts of the involu- 

 cre not foliaceous, little or not at all surpassing the disk 



1. W. anqusti folia. 



Leaves elongated-oblong or ovate, the cauline short-petioled; involucre 

 foliaceous, the outer bracts spreading and commonly much surpassing 

 the disk. 



Herbage minutely or even floccose tomentose 2. W. helenioides. 



Herbage perfectly glabrous, glandular-pubescent and roughish . . . . 



3. W. glabra. 



1. W. angustifolia Nutt. Stems 1 to 2 ft. high, hirsute; herbage 

 green; leaves elongated-lanceolate, acuminate at both ends, occa- 

 sionally serrulate, the radical and lower ones £ to 1 ft. long, the upper 

 sessile and smaller; heads naked, i. e., not leafy at the base, the bracts 

 of the involucre numerous, broadly linear or lanceolate, loose, ciliate 

 with villous or hirsute hairs; achenes minutely pubescent at summit, 

 3 lines long, bearing 1 or 2 (or those of the ray 3 or 4) stout minutely 

 hirsute awns, with some very short intervening chaffy scales, all more 

 or less united at base, rarely awnless. 



Common on the plains and low hills: Monterey Co.; San Mateo 

 Co.; San Francisco Co. ; Oakland Hills; Mt. Diablo; Solano Co. and 

 northward to Shasta Co. 



2. W. helenioides Nutt. One to 2 ft. high, soft-tomentose, 

 almost glabrous in age; radical leaves 1 to 2 ft. long, 4 to 6 in. wide, 

 acute at base and apex, often undulate, long-petioled; cauline leaves 

 much smaller, more commonly oblong-ovate; heads 3 in. broad, 

 including rays, mostly leafy at base; outer scales of the involucre 

 ovate-lanceolate or ovate, sometimes toothed; pappus and upper por- 

 tion of achenes slightly pubescent, at least when young. 



Common in the Coast Range hills: San Luis Obispo Co.; Oakland 

 Hills; Antioch; Vaca Mountains, etc. Apr.-May. 



3. W. glabra Gray. Mi lk's Ears. Green and glabrous 

 throughout, minutely resinous-glandular or viscid, and scabrous, at 

 least when dry; leaves as in the preceding, or broader and obtuse, 

 sometimes toothed, rarely undulate; achenes and pappus glabrous. 



