Eriophyllum

woolly sunflower
Eriophyllum confertiflorum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Tribe: Heliantheae
Genus: Eriophyllum
Lag.
Synonyms[1]
  • Trichophyllum Nutt.
  • Actinolepis DC.
  • Eremonanus I.M.Johnst.

Eriophyllum, commonly known as the woolly sunflower, is a genus of annual or herbaceous perennial plants. The genus is native to western North America (USA, Canada, northwestern Mexico), with a concentration of narrow endemics in the California Floristic Province.[2][3][4]

Eriophyllum species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Phymatopus californicus.

Description

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.[5][6]

Species[1]
  1. Eriophyllum ambiguum (A.Gray) A.Gray
  2. Eriophyllum cheirantiflorum
  3. Eriophyllum confertiflorum (DC.) A.Gray
  4. Eriophyllum lanatum (Pursh) J.Forbes
  5. Eriophyllum lanosum (A.Gray) A.Gray
  6. Eriophyllum mohavense (I.M.Johnst.) Jeps.
  7. Eriophyllum multicaule (DC.) A.Gray
  8. Eriophyllum nubigenum Greene ex A.Gray
  9. Eriophyllum pringlei A.Gray
  10. Eriophyllum stoechadifolium Lag.
  11. Eriophyllum wallacei (A.Gray) A.Gray

References