170 
COMPOSITAE 
37. STEPHANOMERIA Nutt. 
Usually tall and rather slender herbs, paniculately branching above. 
Leaves runcinate or entire. Heads small. Flowers pink or flesh color, 
open in the early morning. Ligules all equal. Involucre cylindrical. 
Achenes strongly angled. Pappus-bristles white or brownish, plumose. 
(Greek stephane, a wreath, and meros, a division, referring to the 
virgate branches.) 
1. S. virgata Benth. Stem rigid, virgate or with virgate branches, 
3 to 12 dm. high; upper leaves linear, lower oblong or spatulate; heads 
subsessile or on slender bracteate peduncles along the branches.—Open 
canon sides and ridges. 
38. TRAGOPOGON L, 
Stout glabrous herbs, somewhat succulent. Leaves grass-like, entire, 
clasping. Heads large, long-peduncled, open only in the forenoon. Flowers 
purple. Involucral bracts in 1 series. Achenes muricate, 5 to 10-ribbed, 
long-beaked. Pappus-bristles long-plumose. (Greek tragos, a goat, and 
pogon, a beard.) 
1. T. porrifolius L. Salsify. Stems from a stout taproot, leafy at 
base, 5.7 to 11.5 dm. high; leaves linear-lanceolate, 2.8 dm. or more 
long.—Cult, from Eur. for its edible root; also sparingly naturalized. 
39. MALACOTHRIX DC. 
Herbs with leafy or almost naked stems. Heads peduncled. Flowers 
yellow, white, or pinkish. Achenes short, ribbed at apex, with an entire 
or denticulate border. Pappus-bristles soft, more or less united at base 
and falling together. (Greek malakos, soft, and thrix, hair, in refer¬ 
ence to the long wool on M. californica, type of the genus.) 
Involucre imbricated in several series; bracts linear to orbicular, scarious. 
1. M. coulteri. 
Involucre little imbricated; bracts lanceolate to linear, not obviously scarious- 
margined. ..2. M. obtusa. 
1. M. coulteri Gray. Snake’s Head. Simple or branching from 
the base, 1.2 to 4.8 dm. high; lower leaves narrowly oblong, the upper 
ovate to lanceolate, sessile; involucral bracts silvery-scarious with a dark 
median line; pappus-bristles 1 to 4. persistent.—San Joaquin Valley to 
S. Cal. 
2. M. obtusa Benth. Stems 1 to 3.8 dm. high, nearly naked; basal 
leaves often bearing tufts of wool on the margin; none of the pappus- 
bristles persistent.—Higher mountain slopes. 
40. SONCHUS L. Sow-Thistle 
Leafy-stemed coarse annual weeds. Heads corvmbed or umbellate, 
swollen at base. Involucral bracts with many shorter ones at base. 
Achenes obcompressed, not beaked. Pappus copious, of cottony-white 
hairs, mainly falling together. (Greek name of the Sow-Thistle.) 
Leaves when sessile sagittate-clasping; peduncles glabrous; achenes longitudi¬ 
nally ribbed and transversely rugose.1. S. oleraceus. 
Leaves when sessile usually auriculate-clasping; peduncles hispid; achenes with 3 
ribs on each side, the intervals smooth.2. S . asper. 
1. S. oleraceus L. Common Sow-Thistle. Stem erect, nearly simple, 
2.8 to 11.5 dm. high; leaves lyrately or runcinately pinnatifid, the ter- 
