| Eriophyllum | |
|---|---|
| Eriophyllum confertiflorum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Asterids |
| Order: | Asterales |
| Family: | Asteraceae |
| Tribe: | Heliantheae |
| Genus: | Eriophyllum Lag. |
| Species | |
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See text. |
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Eriophyllum, commonly known as the woolly sunflower, is a genus of annual or herbaceous perennial plant native to western North America, with a concentration of narrow endemics in the California Floristic Province.
Eriophyllum species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Phymatopus californicus.
Each of the 14 species members in the genus Eriophyllum possesses the following general characteristics. Leaves present generally alternate and entire to nearly compound. The inflorescence manifests heads that somewhat radiate and has clusters that are generally flat-topped; the involucre structure is obconic to hemispheric. Phyllaries are either free or more or less fused; the receptacle presents typically flat, but naked. The ray flowers have yellow ligules entire to lobed. The corolla is also yellow. Fruits manifest as angled in the outer flowers, but are generally club-shaped for the inner flowers; the pappus is somewhat jagged.[1]