Elephantopus tomentosus

Plants (1-)3-6+ dm. Leaves mostly basal at flowering; blades usually obovate to oblanceolate or spatulate (rarely ± orbiculate), 3-8(-10+) cm × 4-12(-25+) mm (including petioles), abaxial faces ± densely pilose, adaxial sparsely pilose to hirsute. Bracts rounded-cordate, 8-15(-20+) × 7-15(-18+) mm. Inner phyllaries 9-11+ mm, pilosulous, hairs 0.3-0.6(-0.9) mm. Cypselae (3-)4-5 mm; pappi 6-8 mm. 2n = 22.

Flowering Aug-Sep. Open or shaded, dry to wet places in pine forests and mixed forests, often on sandy soils; 10-600 m; Ala., Ark., Fla., Ga., Ky., La., Md., Miss., N.C., Okla., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va.; Mexico (probably introduced).

Stems stout, 3-8 dm, hirsute or villous; lvs basal, prostrate in a rosette, broadly elliptic to obovate-oblong, 10-25 נ3-10 cm, obtuse or rounded, crenate, gradually narrowed to the sessile base, softly villous beneath with spreading or somewhat retrorse hairs; infl divaricately branched, usually with 3-10 glomerules; bracts triangular-ovate, equaling or barely surpassing the glomerules; invol 9-13 mm, its bracts thinly strigose and sparsely resinous; pappus-bristles gradually dilated into a narrowly triangular base; 2n=22. Open, sandy woods; coastal plain from se. Va. to Fla. and Tex., n. to the interior of Ky., and s. to Chiapas. Aug., Sept.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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