Brintonia

Brintonia is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the aster family, Asteraceae, containing the single species Brintonia discoidea. It is known commonly as the rayless mock goldenrod.^[1][2] It is native to the southeastern United States, where it is distributed in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi.^[1]

This is a perennial herb growing up to 1.5 meters tall from a thich rhizome. The erect, unbranched stem is lightly hairy. The alternately arranged leaves have rough-haired serrated blades up to 10 centimeters long on winged petioles. The inflorescence is a wide array of several flower heads. Each head contains up to 20 disc florets with bright green tubes and whitish or pinkish corollas and pinkish anthers. The fruit is a ribbed cypsela with a pappus of many white or purple-tipped bristles.^[1]

The plant occurs on the Gulf Coastal Plain in sandy, swampy habitat.^[2]

It is sometimes still treated as a species of Solidago,^[3] but DNA evidence and several aspects of its morphology support its separation from that genus.^[4]

References